


The Fic Where Stephen Realizes He's Gay From A Picnic

by actuallyoddplanstan



Category: Actually Stephen, DanPlan
Genre: #LetHosuhCurse, Angst, Animators make cameos too!!, Dan and Jay are basically Stephen's dads, Dan will tease Stephen (And Hosuh) into oblivion, Everyone is chaotic, Fluff, Forgot to mention alcohol usage, Friendship, Hosuh the anxiety boy, Humor, M/M, Makeout Sesh, More tags always being added, Stephen needs a hug, Stephen's crushing hard, There's a texting aspect too, and crushing under the weight of his thoughts, and everyone is baby, the gist
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-27
Updated: 2020-03-03
Packaged: 2020-10-29 04:10:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 51,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20790422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/actuallyoddplanstan/pseuds/actuallyoddplanstan
Summary: He didn't like men, at least he didn't think so. Yet when he saw how Hosuh's eyes smiled in time his lips, he couldn't help but stare, thinking of how beautiful he was.It pisses him off.





	1. Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> i have never written a romantic fanfic before, lord have mercy, i just got so tired of the drought that is danplan fanfiction on ao3 so i decided to try making my own

Stephen lies awake, unable to catch sleep and catch up on some well-needed thinking time all at once. Ever since him and his friends had a picnic last week, he's been... _Contemplating._

It was a scorching, clear day out— It's summer after all. Dan, Hosuh, and Jay agreed that it'd been far too long, which was a week, since they'd all hung out. Stephen was sweet-talked into coming along. By sweet-talked, Dan promised to buy everyone ice cream, and he wasn't going to miss out on that. Besides, hanging out with your closest friends isn't that bad. Until it is.

They were all sitting under the shade of the leaves of a large oak tree at a local park, crows taking interest but not coming near. The sun was peeking through the spaces of the leaves as Jay kept trying to rant about all the problems YouTube has with it's system while Dan's continuously cutting him off. Looking between his friends, his eyes land on Hosuh, who had started laughing at Jay's disgruntlement. He didn't like guys, at least he didn't think so. Yet when he saw how Hosuh's eyes smiled in time his lips, he couldn't help but stare, thinking of how beautiful he was.

It pisses him off.

Now he's here, still awake at 11PM when he should've been sleeping an hour ago, but he's not just mad about usual sleep schedule being thrown out the window. He's mad that he doesn't understand why this is happening now. If he was gonna have a crisis about his sexuality, why couldn't it have been in highschool instead of now, at the ripe age of twenty-three?! He readjusts his pillow, trying to find comfort in something, since it sure as hell won't be a person giving him such. Stephen would be damned if the day came that he talked to his friends about feelings. _Euck._ He tries to refocus on the topic at hand instead of trailing off, running some questions through his head.

Why do I feel like this now? Well, a lot of people have 'late awakenings' like this, I'm not the first. How about why did I feel like that? He just looked pretty, that's all. Why did I use pretense for that question? I think the thought was just a one time thing, I'm not actively crushing on Hosuh, it's just that when he smiles like that he's looks so beautiful. I feel like that everytime he smiles, it's nothing new. Wait, it's nothing new?

Stephen's mind is flooded with thoughts of Hosuh, unable to drag himself out of it to continue working this out in his head. He thinks back to when his dorm mates got drunk, having to babysit all three of them for some time. Jay had gone to pass out in bed, while Stephen was with Dan and Hosuh on the couch. Dan wasn't tired in the slightest, full attention on the television. But Hosuh was on the verge of nodding off, and Stephen could remember his tired smile accompanied by his bright eyes, and his long silver hair that rested on his shoulders, messy from Dan's repetitive playful ruffling. Thinking about it now feels like too much. It's as if someone just set a cooler full of lava onto his heart. A sickly mix of cool and hot, all the heat rushing to his face and hands, while everything else was cold. Stephen's no stranger to embarrassment, but with the context of the situation it holds a whole different meaning.

Strands from his purple mohawk fall in his vision as he readjusts his sleeping position. So maybe he _does_ like Hosuh a little more than the average person should. Maybe he _does_ think he's beautiful, or pretty, or whatever. Maybe he _does_ appreciate his company, and how into videogames he gets, and how he's always so willing to spend his own time helping his friends, and... Yeah. This is a problem. A problem Stephen isn't about to tackle all at once.

With struggle, he waits for sleep to engulf his brain.


	2. Day 1

Unfortunately, the feeling does not fade, and he's sure the annoyance shows on his face.

Stephen stares down his breakfast, eating slowly. Only himself and Daniel woke up this early, it's only because of the breakfast smell that had travelled throughout the dorm that lured Stephen out of his room, though. Stephen checks the time on his phone to refresh his memory: 6:23AM.

"Hey," Stephen is pulled out of his thoughts by his green-haired dorm mate that was sat next to him at the dining table, whom he forgot was there. "You don't often wake up this early when you don't have classes," Knowing Daniel, he meant it as a question. "I guess this lovely temple called Stephen, of which I am, decided it wanted to look at my face sooner," A very textbook 'classic Stephen' response, which got a nose exhale and smile out of Daniel. At least until his expression softened. "Seriously, did you even sleep? You look more tired than usual," Stephen feigned taking offense "Wow Daniel, how _dare_ you! I just didn't get a chance to wake up when I smelt that bacon," The other responded quickly, looking him dead in the eyes. "What time did you go to sleep last night?"

Stephen thinks. He didn't check his phone, not even once while he was laying down with his thoughts. Who knows how long he was laying there. In fact, he doesn't feel like he slept. Did he sleep? He doesn't remember dreaming, but did he sleep? "Why do you have to think that long about it?!" The purple-haired snaps back, "I didn't check my phone before I slept, so I don't know!" earning a groan from Daniel as he goes on a tangent about how he can't mess up his sleep schedule unless it's for a project. Stephen tunes it out. Stephen wonders if Daniel knows more than he does himself about these problems, but the thought is fleeting.

———————————————

Stephen was leaning on the arm of the couch while making a study sheet in Microsoft Word, with the laptop his college provided, when a blanket was thrown over his head. Upon yanking it off and looking over his shoulder, he's greeted with the face of Jay. "Wanna watch a movie on Netflix or are you too busy being a perfectionist?" Stephen keeps deadpanned, "_Actually_, I'm too busy being better than everyone, thank you." Jay circles around and sits next to him on the couch. "Ah, of course, my mistake," Jay pauses as he stretches, mumbling a quiet 'aigoo' as his bones crack. "Daniel got a feeling you were in some sort of 'mood' today so he told me to talk to you or something," Stephen rolls his eyes, "Of course he did..."

He was able to focus on his mini-project at hand for thirty seconds until the blonde to his left piped up. "So who's keeping you up so late? Texting a secret girlfriend?" Stephen feels like he's been sat down by his father to talk about any possible crushes at school. "No," he responds exhaustedly. "A secret boyfriend?" He groans internally. "_Jay_," He says, giving him a death stare. "We don't exactly talk about preferences, I'm just throwing it out there," To be fair, it's not that he's wrong, it's the fact that it's annoying. But Stephen just wants to focus on his cheat sheet, and talking more will not help him accomplish that. He needs to focus on anything that isn't Hosuh. And here we go, the thoughts are rolling in now... "Talk to me, I'll tell no one. Maybe Daniel, but no one else," Apparently what he thought was inner conflict showed on his face. "There's nothing wrong," "I never said there was,_ is_ there something wrong?" Stephen stops looking at his laptop to direct his focus to Jay. "I'm not talking about it, can I just work in peace?" He waits for Jay to speak, seeing him hesitate. "...How serious is this?" Stephen sets a mental timer for sixty seconds and hopes Jay leaves by the time a minute has passed on the clock. "It really isn't," Jay hesitates again. "I'm letting you off the hook for now, but you can always talk to us, you know that right?" Stephen groans, and looks back to his laptop now that the crisis is averted. "God, you really are an aunt, Ann was right," Jay scoffs as he gets up and Stephen listens as his voice grows distant, "Wow, I see how it is, after I was so concerned about you because of Daniel's worrying..."

Stephen's just glad he has more time to think about this before he thinks about telling anyone.

———————————————

He totally forgot that he has to see Hosuh everyday. He only remembered once Hosuh came out of his man-cave for dinner. A total mess, couldn't talk about anything other than the progress he made on an animation and the anime that Stephen had recommended him. Paying attention and making eye contact during conversation was one of the hardest things to date, especially when seeing Hosuh so talkative is something to be cherished. Stephen feels like he's locked in a highschool romance series, and he's the main character. He always wanted to be the protagonist, but not like this. _Not like this..._

Now here he was, on the floor of the living room, playing Dota 2 with Hosuh on their designated laptops, which were placed on the coffee table. This is fine. As time went on he found himself feeling less uncomfortable being around Hosuh and more focused on just winning the match. Which did happen, since Stephen is the best. "Woo, GG scrubs," he reiterates his sentence into the match's chat, leaving out the 'scrubs' part, as he sees Hosuh's username in the chat, also saying "GG". Hosuh cracks his fingers, "That was ruthless," Stephen also cracks his fingers, his fingers fatigued from all the button pressing, "I don't think I've _ever_ heard the word 'ruthless' come out of your mouth," "I'm sure you have!"

They stop bickering to just sit in each other's silence for a minute, muscles cramped up from their posture. Hosuh hums a note for a moment, "So, were Jay and Daniel lying about the bad mood thing?" Not again. "Word spreads fast, hm?" Hosuh laughs quietly and it makes Stephen's heart beat a little faster. "Just looking out for you. Are you having an off-day? Or 'were' might be the word..." Stephen leans back until he connects with the edge of the couch. "Maybe I was," He hopes it ends there. It does. "It's 9:40 now, I'm gonna go get some more work done," as he picks his laptop up, and heads to his room. "Alright, don't go to sleep too late," He calls after him. Hosuh doesn't miss a beat saying "Who do you think I am? _Jay?_" muffled, he hears Jay from his room, "Huh?!" they both laugh.

Maybe Stephen can survive these feelings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i haven't planned anything past this point so oopsie doopsie if i don't update this fic for months


	3. Day 5

He keeps jinxing himself. One moment everything is fine. In fact, it has been for a couple days. Other than that rat, _Dan_, checking up on him occasionally since he is not one to give up easy when he thinks something is off. Today is different. He knows that the second he sees a familiar silver-haired man up at 7AM, at the kitchen table, with an absence of Dan. He had his laptop with him, but no drawing tablet. Plus a cup of what Stephen assumed was tea.

"Hosuh, up so early?" The other jumps the second he hears his name. "Oh, morning," Stephen waits for him to continue, leaning on the wall with his arms crossed, trying to have that 'disappointed dad' attitude. Dadditude. "...I pulled an all-nighter, but I _did_ take a nap. But after that nap I made tea, and I brought my laptop so I could work at the same time, but then I didn't want to go back to my room, and now we're here," Hosuh lists off everything, his hand gestures really accentuating the whole treacherous journey.

"And _why_ exactly did you pull an all-nighter?" Really selling the dadditude now. He feels like a hypocrite because this is exactly what Dan does, and he hates when Dan dadditudes him. Dannitude. "DOTA," Hosuh puts it simply before laughing, "I gotta get good," Stephen laughs, ruining the hushed atmosphere with how loud his laugh is. "Don't laugh! It's only because you've been carrying me! I want to get on an... Equal ground, with your skills," It _is_ true that Stephen is definitely the better DOTA player out of the two, anyone would agree. He won't even let anyone who isn't up to his skill level play with him, so it's a bit surprising to hear that Hosuh is trying to match his skill level, when really, he'd play with him even if he was trash at the game. And with that brief thought, words spill out of Stephen's mouth before he can take a second to think.

"Ah, come on, I don't care if you play horrendously, I only carry you because I love you," Don't sputter. Don't be surprised at yourself. I hope I look normal right now. Am I blushing or did a heatwave just hit? "You'll start caring if I end up being shit consistently!" Oh thank god, he ignored the second half. "Doubt it. Anyway, I'm making breakfast," he goes for the fridge as he hears movement behind him. "I can help, Jay and Daniel will probably get up in a minute," Hosuh lightly nudges his way around Stephen to get to the fridge, immediately reaching for the bacon. Stephen has a feeling it's gonna be a long fifteen minutes or so.

  
———————————————

  
"You've been spacing out for a while," Stephen's mind comes back to reality, thanks to his green-haired friend who was sat to his right on the couch. "Have you been getting enough sleep?" Stephen rolls his eyes before turning off his phone, which is what he had spaced out looking at. "So Hosuh can pull an all-nighter and you say nothing, but you'll nag me into oblivion?" He argues, shifting his position so that he can stare at Daniel as intimidatingly as a man sitting criss-cross half-assedly can. "I'm the one asking questions here, motherfudger!" Just then, Jay's voice from the kitchen echoes into the living room. "You know you can say fuck, right?" Dan turns his head in the kitchen's direction, "Shut up!" and whips his head back around to Stephen.

"What's going on with you?" Stephen groans and proceeds to push Daniel into the corner of the couch with his feet. "Nothing is, you're trying to force a bonding moment!" Jay's voice from the kitchen echoes into the living room again, "That's not what I know, but okay," Betrayal. This is what betrayal is. He yells to the traitor, "Jay!" Then his ears focus on Hosuh's voice, quieter than the blonde-haired's, laughing from the kitchen at his outburst. Forgot he can hear too. End me. "So something _is_ up!" Daniel's loud voice is going to make Stephen snap. "I am to be trusted with these things, I promise it," Stephen turns on his phone for a moment, 8:26PM. Hosuh and Jay would be done making dinner in a couple minutes. Stephen quiets down, "I'll tell you, but not because I want to. Only because I know you won't give up," Stephen stands, signalling Dan to do the same, and they go out through the screendoor, leading to the backyard.

"You got so serious, is this bad?" Stephen sits on the edge of the porch, Daniel following suit. "It's not _bad_, it's just... A situation. I still haven't figured out how to comprehend it, or understand it, even," Stephen suddenly feels so vulnerable opening up like this. The couple of seconds he had to decide this, he thought he'd be a lot more casual about it. But nope, he's a mess. He realizes Dan is waiting for him to continue. "I don't know how to say this, being straightforward is usually easy, but..." Stephen trails off. "Type it out, then show me," Ah. Good idea. Stephen turns on and unlocks the phone he had kept in his hand, opening up the notepad app. When he started worrying about how to word it, he gave up and typed it how it is. Unable to look in his direction, he turns his phone towards Daniel:

'I think I'm in love with Hosuh'.

"Oh," It falls to silence. Stephen starts to worry of what he thinks, until he speaks again.

"Ann owes me 10 dollars now," Huh? "_Huh?_" Stephen stares dumbfounded at Dan, who is brandishing a smirk that he wants to slap off his face. "Well, me and Ann had this conversation of how you two get along so well, and I brought up 'Hey do you think they'd like each other? Like _love_ each other?' and Ann was like 'Never, can't see it,' so we made a bet on it." Stephen speaks the moment Dan's sentence comes to a stop. "I hate you," The green-haired laughs at him, "No, wait, I get the kind of situation you're in," Daniel regains his composure before continuing, "What I do to figure these things out is I type it out, just a long rant, and as I type it starts to make more sense of what I should do, or how I'm feeling. I don't know if it works for everyone, though," Stephen thinks about it for a second. It'd work as a good vent output instead of talking to people about his problems, which Stephen dreads mostly. If anything, he's mad he didn't think of it before.

"Okay. You won't tell anyone about this, right?" Daniel rubs his chin with his pointer finger and thumb. "Hmmm, maybe Ann so I can get 10 dollars, maybe Jay so we can leave you two alone more often..." Stephen sputters, "I'll literally kill you!" Dan has a condescending tone as he laughs, "But you'd like to spend more time with Hosuh, wouldn't you?" Stephen ignores him and uses his shoulder as support as he gets up, being sure to press down forcefully on it. "Never speak a word of this," He comes in to the smell from the kitchen hitting him in the face, luring him closer. Daniel follows him shortly after.

Stephen is suffering, but surviving these feelings.


	4. Day 6 Part 1

Stephen wakes up and checks his phone after staying in the comfort of his bed for a while longer, 7:53AM. He sees he has a couple unread messages from Dan, so naturally, he reads them.

════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

6:34AM

**green garbage**

Stephen I have an interesting idea to share!!!

Text me when you wake up 👀👀👀

7:54AM

**Me**

No, I won't help you prank Hosuh again.

**green garbage**

lololol It's not a prank idea but your mind is in the right place

**Me**

Oh fun.

════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Stephen already knows he's trying to be some sort of wingman. When it comes to helping, Dan tries too hard. So he knows to disregard most of what he's saying, or at least take note of his advice, and fulfill it at his own pace. But boy, does Dan tend to rush things.

════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

**green garbage**

So here's the idea...

The tea if you will...

**Me**

Stop.

**green garbage**

Shut up I'm talking

**Me**

*Typing.

**green garbage**

WHATEVER I'm typing

So Ann wants to go to the fair that's a bit out of this area, but she has no one to go with her so what I was thinking was that we could all go and have a good bonding time

You could bond with Hosuh more 👀👀👀👀👀👀 Aren't I such a smart and good friend? :)

**Me**

You are a heathen.

**green garbage**

You have no say in this we're going at 1pm

**Me**

Fuck you too.

**green garbage**

:) 💖❤️💗

Btw Ann's gonna give me the $10 when we get there

**Me**

Jnsdngjrdeuhftgjfshi???

**green garbage**

LOL breakfast will be done in a minute

════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

A rat. A troglodyte. A _clown_. To think he lives with a troll, both the fantasy and internet kind. Stephen thinks of a good flip-side to this as he gets himself ready for the day on autopilot. Fairs are fun, spending time with friends is fun. If he doesn't think about it as 'bonding time with Hosuh' he'll be fine. It's been a while since they've all hung out with Ann anyway. Other than that, it bothers him that Daniel really didn't hesitate to tell Ann about it, and wonders if he's told Jay too. Stephen likes to keep his secrets to himself, but when paired with someone as loud and friendly as Dan, it doesn't mix well. He does have to give Dan credit for his work ethic, but because of that he's always rushing things. Which is exactly what he's trying to do now. Maybe Stephen didn't word something right? I mean, you're not supposed to just hop into a relationship the moment you fall in love with someone, right? Is there a right way to relationships, even?

Stephen starts feeling his mind going into a depressing place, so he drags himself out of it, and realizes that while on autopilot, he started mindlessly chewing on the toothbrush he was brushing his teeth with. Stephen can't tell if it's because he's anxious, or hungry.

  
———————————————

  
The green-haired rat's voice resonates in the quiet house, "Jay, hurry up or we'll leave without you!" but the thoughts in Stephen's head resonate louder. He can hear Jay yell back, but he can't hear anything over how loud his brain is being all because he's in Hosuh's presence, and it doesn't help that Hosuh had braided his hair. He doesn't know what demon possessed this silver-haired angel to bring on this rare occurrence, but if Stephen's memory is serving him right, autumn and braids is a thing. Then again, it's been years since he heard anything about that kind of trend. Nevermind that, Stephen's heart is not okay. Stephen hears something about leaving and follows his friends outside to Dan's car, still on autopilot, he immediately goes to the backseat and stares out the window. If anyone were observing him right now they'd think 'Stephen's thinking some deep shit' when really, Stephen's drowning in some deep shit.

"Philosopher Stephen, what deep thoughts are you having?" Ah. How convenient for Jay to know just when to interrupt his thoughts. "I'm thinking about how I'm too amazing to be around such inferior people," Dan's loud laugh as he starts the car makes Stephen take his attention away from the world outside the window. He notices the blonde is in the passenger seat in front of him and not next to him. Stephen doesn't look over to see who he knows is already there. Instead he reaches over and slaps Daniel's shoulder, not as hard has he hoped though. Daniel just barely flinches. "Oh, resorting to violence now? I think we need to get a divorce," Daniel states, and everyone laughs. Stephen laughs with them. After a second Jay says "Wow, I thought we were husband and wife, now _Stephen_ is also your husband? Hosuh might as well be your husband too!" Stephen hears Hosuh quietly say "I don't think he's gonna be for long," but it's drowned out over Daniel laughing. Stephen somehow has it in his to look at Hosuh and give him a playful push on the shoulder. Hosuh laughs, probably because someone actually heard him. Stephen's heart beats faster immediately. It's not okay for Hosuh to be this beautiful. Stephen casually looks back outside the window to hide the blush he knows will show.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ooh would you look at me using fancy things only so the text message part can look like a text message thing  
but YES this is a two parter the second part will definitely be longer though i just wanted to set this up and the second part can be all fair fun with the boys and ann  
while im writing here i wanna thank you guys for all the support im very shook as the cool kids say :,) especially since i've literally NO EXPERIENCE with writing romantic fics, not counting the fic i made of my two ocs like 5 years ago and never finished.  
remember to stanplan danplan and to stanify melodify B) (god if y'all come to ann's streams and you see me don't expose me in front of her and chat i'd literally cry out of embarrassment thank you LMAO)


	5. Day 6 Part 2

  
Eventually arriving to the fair, they meet up with Ann, let Dan pay for the tickets, and enter the rigged money-hungry playground. Stephen knows not to trust any carnival games and occasionally some arcade games. On a tier list of rigged games though, crane games are SS tier because it's just _that_ rigged.

After getting plastic cards with a limit of games they can play, the five of them pause their movements to decide their course of action, Jay not hesitating to say "I want a plushie. I refuse to leave without one," With Ann excitedly saying "Me too! I need a new Pooh Bear plushie," Causing Dan to question her, "You have way too many, and what if there isn't any here anywa—?" The pink-haired cuts him off, "Don't question my stuffed animal collection, do you want to go get bear plushies or not?" Dan pauses to consider, so Hosuh fills the silence, "I want plushies too," Ending in an awkward laugh. Stephen groans, "Then I have no choice but to be dragged around by you all," That same loud laugh from a loud Daniel is somehow louder than all the commotion around them, "Don't worry Stephen, we'll get some use out of your height for some games," Daniel laughs at his own joke and everyone laughs with him. Stephen is utterly offended. "Is that all I'm good for, my height?!" They're too busy laughing to respond.

The five of them walk around for a while, keeping focused on the prizes they could win, when Hosuh spotted a stuffed animal prize that he really wanted, "Guys, look at those cat plushies!" Ann aww'd at the array of tiny cat plushies, while Jay said in monotone, "Not fluffy enough," and kept walking, Ann then said "Stephen, help Hosuh get cat plushies!" Stephen stutters, "Why me?!" Ann accentuates her argument with hand movements, "Because _we_ want bears and Hosuh wants cats! Dan, let's catch up with Jay," And before Stephen could get a witty comment out, they caught up to Jay and he was left standing awkwardly with Hosuh, who says, "I'm not in the mood to talk to someone I don't know," and Stephen rolls his eyes at his introverted friend, approaching the stall himself knowing that Hosuh would follow behind. It was a balloon dart game, so it can't be that bad.

The vendor quickly converses with him, telling him that he'd need to pop just five balloons with five darts for one of the small prizes: One of the cat stuffed animals Hosuh wants. Hosuh insisted to let the game be charged on his card, so he didn't stop him. After receiving the five darts, he took one and gave the rest to Hosuh for him to hold. Fiddling with the dart a moment, deciding what balloon he could go for from his vantage point, he notices some balloons were already popped. It always struck him as odd when he went to fairs. Maybe they don't put new ones for a while to increase difficulty he assumes. Winding his arm back and closing his left eye, he aims and throws the dart. It pops a balloon. Taking a dart from Hosuh's hand, he aims again and throws. It pops.

"Oh shit," Hosuh exclaims obviously without thinking. "We are at a fair, think of the children," Stephen takes a third dart and aims. "Why would a child find our conversation more interesting than the fair?" Stephen ignores him to focus and throws the dart. Another balloon popped. Stephen goes for another dart and tries not to think about how warm Hosuh's hand is, aims, and throws. Now he has one left to pop. He gets the final dart from Hosuh's hand, despite the silver-haired's excited hopping. Stephen really tries not to think about how warm said silver-haired friend's hands are right now. Winning this for him is more important. With that, he aims, focuses really hard on it, and throws the dart. Five balloons.

"Why didn't you tell me you were a fair game master before?!" Hosuh chatted excitedly while the vendor got one of the small stuffed animal cats. "I'm not, I swear," Hosuh stops listening as he recieves the stuffed calico cat, "I'm gonna name him..." Stephen watches Hosuh ponder as he stares down into the cat's plastic eyes. "You know calico cats are rarely male, right?" Hosuh's head snaps up to look at Stephen, the surprise on his face, "Really? That just makes him more special then," Fair enough. "Let's go find everyone, you can figure out his name any other time," So they began to wander where they all left to.

  
———————————————

  
It eventually became 4PM, within that time Ann got two plushies, one of Piglet, and the Pooh Bear plushie she was hoping for. She only got the Pooh Bear plushie thanks to Jay's help, though. Jay had won himself a Pikachu plushie and refuses to let go of it, while Daniel got himself a stuffed bear from one of those water gun balloon popping games. Well, Ann won, but she gave Daniel the bear stuffed animal because "Your current bear is cronchy". Hosuh was happy with just his cat stuffed animal, and Stephen didn't win himself anything. Not because he didn't win any games, only because he didn't want or need a low-quality plushie, letting Dan use his card so he can play more games. <strike>And lose at them.</strike>

So here they are now, sitting down with the treats they'd bought, planning to go home soon. "Stephen, you need a plushie," Ann argues at him. Stephen argues back, "I don't _need_ a plushie, it wouldn't change my life to have a plushie," Hosuh then stops eating to say, "How many more games do you have left to play? On your card?" Stephen assumes he's gonna try and get another plushie, so he takes it out and holds it out to him. "Two I think," Hosuh hands his stuffed calico cat and the elephant ear he was eating to Dan and drags Stephen up by the wrist that was holding out the card, "I'm gonna get Stephen a plushie," Stephen is confused as Dan says "Have fun!" before the two rounded the corner, Hosuh having not let go of his wrist. "Hosuh, I don't need a plushie," The mentioned ignores him and drags him along. "You like Torchic, right?" Stephen nods though he can't see it, "Yeah? Is there a Torchic plushie I missed?" Hosuh stops in front of a stall in the center of the path, "So you _do_ want a plushie!" Stephen rolls his eyes over to the stall: A ring toss game. Definitely rigged. But, there is also most definitely a Torchic plushie along with an array of other Pokemon plushies. This must be how Jay got that Pikachu plushie.

"I'm doing this myself since you won me a prize," Stephen laughs, "You're gonna lose," Hosuh laughs with him, "I won't!" The vendor comes over and Stephen gives them the card, scans it, and hands them ten rings. One ring gets them a completely unneeded useless prize, but five rings gets them a plushie. Hosuh immediately moves to the side of the booth with the rings to get a closer range, and starts throwing, just slightly calculating his throws. Somehow, it's working, since once five rings were down he had two rings on bottles. "I'm surprised at how easy the game is and not your skills," Stephen states semi-honestly, Hosuh laughs before throwing the next ring, "You underestimate my powers," The ring lands on a bottle. Maybe the game isn't rigged to be hard, it's rigged to let Hosuh win. "Maybe I do," On the last ring, Hosuh had gotten five rings on the bottles. Hosuh had jumped in place and confidently asked for the Torchic plushie, and as fast as Hosuh got it, it was shoved into Stephen arms. "Now we're even!"

Hosuh quickly began leading him back to where their friends were. "What are you gonna name your Torchic?" Stephen looks at the fire-type chicken he's holding to his chest. "Maybe just Torchy, I'm not good with names," Hosuh laughs, "I was expecting you say either 'Mirio' or 'Stephen'," Stephen laughs a loud, genuine laugh, "Ah, well now that you say it!" They make it back to their friends and Jay immediately perks up, "Fire chicken!" Stephen defends Torchy from Jay's grubby hands "He's mine, back off!" Daniel laughs at their chaos, "Are we ready to leave now that everyone has a prize?" Stephen can see Hosuh nod in his peripherals, then Daniel continues "Alright team, let's head out!" Still holding Torchy defensively, Stephen follows everyone to the fair exit. "Thanks for coming with me guys, I got a Pooh Bear out of this! Plus, the ever reliable Dan paid," Ann says excitedly. "Of course, we love bonding with friends. Right, Stephen?" Stephen doesn't stutter this time. "Why do you guys always put me on the spot like this?!"

After a quick chatter, Ann goes to her car as the boys went to Dan's, and everyone gets home safely.

  
———————————————

  
It's 9PM. Stephen had gotten ready for bed, but can't seem to sleep again. He's replaying events of today in his head all while holding Torchy. His brain can't seem to get over how Hosuh got the plushie for him. It's not a big deal, but to Stephen's heart, it is. His brain is thinking back to Hosuh's braided hair, the warmth of his hand, how excited he was to get a stuffed animal, and how happy he was to get Stephen a stuffed animal. Is there a difference between a plushie and a stuffed animal? It doesn't matter right now. Stephen decides to utilize Daniel's advice and type down what he's feeling in the notes of his phone. He types all about today, definitely exaggerating the details about Hosuh. All he wrote in conclusion is, and he knows if Daniel saw this he would tease him when Hosuh isn't around, "In con-fucking-clusion: What the fuck. Is this legal? No. Hosuh is illegally cute and it's not okay".

As he saves the note so he can reminisce on it later, he gets a text from Hosuh. What a coincidence.

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9:13PM

** Hosuh the art slave **  
  
Look at my baby!!! I decided to name him Tri!  
_[Open image attachment]_

** Me**  
  
You're bad with names.

════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Hosuh sent a picture of 'Tri', the calico cat, on the desk in Hosuh's room. Tri looks very cozy but Stephen would personally be restless if he had the name Tri. He thought Hosuh would've thought of something, anything better than Tri. Even simply naming him 'Cat' would have been acceptable. Not Tri, though.

════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

** Hosuh the art slave **  
  
Tri like tricolor! white, orange, black...

**Me**  
  
It should be named something cool, like Stephen for example.

** Hosuh the art slave **  
  
Any better examples, sir ego?

════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Stephen genuinely thinks about this. He focuses on the colors of course: Orange and black are Halloween colors. But white isn't. Then it hit him. A double meaning.

════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

** Me**  
  
Maybe Hallo? Since orange and black are Halloween colors, and white is the color of purity so take away an L and it's Halo.

** Hosuh the art slave **  
  
Stephen: name your cat hallo because [insert good reasons here]  
  
Also Stephen: torchy

** Me**  
  
SHUT UP

** Hosuh the art slave **  
  
LOL i actually really like Hallo im gonna pronounce it as halo though

** Me**  
  
Hallo but it's halo is like naming your child Kaytleine.

** Hosuh the art slave **  
  
HAHAHAHA

** Me**  
  
If you really hate your cat you can pronounce the ll as y and make it Hayo.

** Hosuh the art slave**  
  
You're truly a chaotic being

** Me**  
  
You know I'm great.

** Hosuh the art slave **  
  
If that's what you call quirky, yes

** Me**  
  
NEVER call me quirky ever again.

** Hosuh the art slave **  
  
LOL

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Stephen decides to stop replying after that. He realizes he was smiling the whole time he was talking to him.

Maybe Stephen does underestimate Hosuh's power.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and the two parter is finished :D  
i have some ideas for chapters,,,, im gonna try and give you guys an angsty chapter because i love angst i just hate to hurt my faves. that's all i say.  
remember to stanplan danplan and stanify melodify have a good day


	6. Day 14

Exam week is nearly over. Stephen totally forgot it was happening until the realization hit him like a truck after he came down from his Hosuh-fair-high. Stephen had some intruding thoughts in class, but overall he thinks it's gone smoothly. Not like it's time to regret, once this class is over, so is exam week. For once he hopes the thoughts of that silver-haired beauty distract him from any overthinking of his results. Speaking of, Stephen has been using his phone's notes as his venting source a lot more. For the most part it's unstructured messes with attempts to make himself laugh with the things he says, but that's only because he writes everything without planning it and only goes back to correct typos he made.

Class ends, so he drags his body outside, and starts walking toward the bus stop. Normally Daniel would take them home in his car, but he had an overdue dentist appointment he couldn't miss, and apologized way too many times. Stephen checks the groupchat just to count, eight times. Unsurprisingly, a message was sent while he was checking.

  
  
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2:43PM

**naruto**

We out here  
_[Open image attachment]_  
  
  
  
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════  
  
  
It's Jay and his fucking Pikachu plushie, just shoved in his backpack, at the bus stop. He brought the plushie to class. Stephen will never be able to understand what drives this man to do the things he does.  
  
  
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

**Me**

You brought it with you?

**naruto**

Of course. It relieves stress. :v

**Me**

Does this mean plushies will replace your alcohol addiction?

**naruto**

I do not have an addiction. I just enjoy a variety of calming elixers.

**Me**

Yeah, no shit.

**naruto**

Where's Hosuh? It's usually at this point he comes to my defense.  


**Hosuh the art slave**

I'm walking why would I be looking at my phone  


**naruto**

But you obviously looked at your phone to type that.  


**Hosuh the art slave**

Idk what you're talking about be there in a min  


**naruto**

_[Open image attachment]_  
Surprised Pikachu :v  
  
  
  
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════  
  
  
It's a picture of the Pikachu plush, again. This time from a downward angle. Stephen doesn't laugh. Stephen doesn't understand memes. He reaches the bus stop before Hosuh does, and sees Jay just relaxed, holding the Pikachu plush. He sits down next to him, knowing he knows of his presence.  
  
  
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

  
  
**Me**

You're not funny.

**naruto**

Bold words for someone who's sitting right next to me.

**Me**

I pride myself in being bold, thank you very much.

════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════  
  
  
"Are you two _seriously_ texting in the groupchat when you're sitting next to each other?" Stephen looks up from his phone and his purple eyes meet Hosuh's blue ones. It's so dumb how the simplest of things make Stephen want to disassociate right then and there. Stephen drags his eyes back down to his phone when Jay starts talking, "Yes, actually. I can't say 'colon V' in real life, now can I?" Stephen wheezes out of nose and says, trying to put it simply without laughing, "Colon V sounds like a disease," Hosuh chuckles at that, and when he catches his breath he sits next to Stephen.

"How long is it until the bus gets here?" While Hosuh is mid-sentence Stephen tries not to fall back into thinking about Hosuh, especially not when he's right there. "It should be about ten minutes," Good thing Jay answered, because Stephen is mentally not here right now. He was going to look at his notes and mindlessly read them to distract himself, but Hosuh is right there. This'll be a long ten minutes.

And ten minutes do come and go, eventually the three make it back home. Jay immediately went to the kitchen to cook something, Hosuh following stead. Stephen, not wanting to interfere and not being that skilled in cooking anyway, went to the couch and made himself snug in the corner of it. Now would be a better time than ever to look for typos in any of his notes, maybe edit some of them. Also just to re-establish the notes into his mind, that too.

  
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

10/3/19

Every note is going to start and end with "Is this legal?" This is just how it is going to be.  
Exam week is <strike>fucked</strike> FUCKED it's okay I guess but can I maybe not have intrusive thoughts, thank you? Watch me get intrusive thoughts as I type.  
I need to type this before I forget: Why am I so<strike>! N</strike>not casual<strike>! A</strike>about physical affection! (Is that the word I'm looking for?) Example: Any of my friends could hold my hand and I'll be chill about it, but now when it's specifically Hosuh? I'm not okay. I had an intrusive thought in class of just hugging Hosuh. Is this normal? I am NOT going to Yahoo Answers. <strike>F for me and my 0 knowledge of relationships.</strike>  
  
  
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Some things were too accentuated or not accentuated enough, so he fixed it to his how he feels about it now. As well as how painfully true as that last part is, it's embarrassing. Best get rid of it. Even though it's only him who'll see these. If Daniel, or anyone for that matter, saw these, they'd probably tease him about it. Stephen shuts his phone off and readjusts himself, so that his side is leaning of the back of the couch comfortably. His mind slips away without him realizing.

  
———————————————

  
"Hey, sleeping ugly, wake up," Stephen slowly stirs awake to the blonde on his left, nudging him awake. "You can sleep after you eat," It's only after Jay said that that Stephen noticed that he had brought his own and Stephen's plate of food to the living room, which is a little different. Stephen sits upright, trying to massage a knot in his neck from the odd napping position, "You didn't have to bring my food over here, I could've brought myself to the dining table," Jay lightly laughs as he sits next to him, "I know,"

Stephen squints. "What are you up to?" Jay feigns taking offense before reaching for his plate of food he set on the table to place it in his lap, "Oh, can I not have a bonding time with you? Is it illegal to check in on how you're doing? Dan's still been worrying about you by the way, he never elaborates though," Jay takes this time to start eating. Stephen is a bit surprised, since it seems Daniel hasn't told Jay anything. Unless he's just acting like he knows nothing, but he doubts Jay would pull that since they're both alone. Actually, that reminds him... "Oh, where's Hosuh, wasn't he cooking with you?" Casually changing the topic, to the exact problem Dan is concerned about. Not the smartest idea, but.

Jay sounds a little confused when he says, "Hosuh? No, he went to his room immediately," Stephen tilts his head in question as he eats, silently signalling the blonde to go on. "I asked him what he wanted to eat, but he just said he wasn't hungry and that he was going to sleep. Maybe he was just as exhausted as you were," Stephen hums the equivalent of a 'Huh.' It's a little worrying, but Hosuh's sleep patterns are unpredictable, so he doesn't think much of it. They end up eating in silence for the most part.

  
———————————————

  
Stephen finds himself up at 3AM. Why, you may ask? Well, as amazing and smart as he is, Stephen forgot that coffee ice cream has caffeine too. It doesn't help that he had a nap earlier, either. So after submitting to the reality that he won't be able to sleep for a while, he plays a bit of DOTA, and checks in on the Discord server all his friends and his friend's friends are in. Pretty much everyone that's awake on the server are seen as playing League of Legends. One being Daniel. That rat has evolved into a disgusting owl.

Just when Stephen was going to trash on them for playing League, he heard a knock on his door. He says, hopefully loud enough but not too loud, "You can come in," and in comes Hosuh, blanket over his shoulders and stuffed cat in hand. He's definitely visibly tired, and he didn't bother tying his hair up. The silver-haired doesn't explain things first, he just walks over to Stephen's bed and sits himself down on it. "Hi," He starts, extremely simply. And then doesn't continue. Stephen takes this as a sign that he doesn't know how to bring up what's the matter, so he gets up from his desk and sits next to Hosuh. "What's got you coming to me at three in the morning?" Hosuh is silent for a moment, looking only at the stuffed animal in his hands, "Stress sleeping over exams was a bad idea, and now I'm just... Not in a good mood. I didn't really want to go to anyone else, either,"

Stephen knows Hosuh in this regard: He has a hard time talking about his problems. And if he's right, he always says something along the lines of...? "I don't really know how to word anything, I just thought going to someone would help," Called it. What Stephen feels doesn't matter, all that matters is letting Hosuh vent about whatever's on his mind. I mean, that's what friends are supposed to do. "You can just talk and I'll listen," Stephen says, in an attempt to ease any worries he had in initiating this. Only then does Hosuh look at him for a brief second, "I wouldn't be bothering you?" Stephen stifles a laugh, "I'm up at 3AM, how could you be bothering me?" Hosuh wheezes out of his nose with a soft smile, "I'd think you'd be doing something important if you're up this late," Stephen runs a hand through his mohawk, stopping to scratch at his neck, "I ate a whole carton of coffee ice cream and forgot there's caffeine in it," Hosuh then laughs, despite how soft his voice is, his laugh is loud in the dead of night.

"Enough about that though, you can tell me what's bothering you," Stephen takes this time to reach behind him to grab the Torchic plushie that rested on his bed. When he brings his attention back to Hosuh, he's already brought his feet up to the edge of the bed, wrapping himself in the blanket that he previously donned on his shoulders. Stephen waits for him to speak.

"It's like... All this exam stress brought back a lot of anxiety, and I just got out of another wave of anxiety, maybe two weeks ago? And this just made me want to stay in my room and never come out. But I should develop... Better coping mechanisms, so I guess that's what all this is? I don't know, I probably sound stupid," Hosuh grows quieter at the end of his venting, "You don't sound stupid, you're just spilling your thoughts out," Hosuh nods, avoiding eye contact, "I know," They sit in the comfort of the silence a while until Hosuh speaks again, "It's not just that though, 'cause now I'm overthinking everything, and my brain's trying to convince me that I'm... That I'm doing terribly, that I didn't do as much as I could for the exams, it's all just... Can I hug you?" Hosuh _never_ asks if he can hug someone he's friends with, he usually just initiates them. But Stephen doesn't mind it and places Torchic down, shifting to face Hosuh, letting him fill the space between his arms.

They stay like that with no words said, only some sniffling from Hosuh. Stephen tries to relax into the hug, but he's definitely coming down from the caffeine high and is struggling to keep his eyes open. Yet he forgets when his eyes let themselves close, mind drifting off into unconsciousness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no one:  
me: must giv ehosuh the case of, the Worry  
i finished this at 3am, it is 3am right now, i promise my tired brain will check this over in the morning.


	7. Day 15 Part 1

Stephen awakes in bed, he's slow to wake up at first, until he remembers last night. He really fell asleep hugging Hosuh. He's never going to let himself live this down. Stephen immediately goes to his phone to text Hosuh how sorry he is, just to see Hosuh already texted him. Oh boy.

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4:12AM

**Hosuh the art slave**

For when you wake up I'm surprised that you were so tired that you fell asleep during a hug if I knew you were that tired I would've left you be lol  


8:34AM

**Me**

OH MY GOD I AM SORRY

**Hosuh the art slave**

It's okay!!!

**Me**

But I was supposed to be listening to you and I just FELL ASLEEP

**Hosuh the art slave**

There wasn't really anything left to say anyway, it's okay!  


════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════  


Hosuh smiles at his phone in amusement from Stephen's unexpected response. Stephen's not really one to be so loud about his feelings, especially over text. Stephen's a quiet guy in general, so maybe that's part of why he decided to go to him to vent. Other than the fact that Hosuh feels the closest to Stephen than anyone else, that is. Stephen has seen a lot of sides of him, and it sounds a little scary that he's given that much of himself, but nevermind that. Stephen knows him better than anyone else.

Hosuh feels a dip in the couch's cushion behind him, so he cranes his head around to see the green-haired Daniel, who donned a smug look. "While you're talking to him, tell him that we're going to the zoo with Ann and Joe, will you?" Hosuh lets out a snicker and turns back to his phone to relay the message, "You're weird,"  


════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════  


**Me**

Oh btw apparently we're going to the zoo I just heard about this.

**Stephen**

Punch Dan for me.

**Me**

Aye aye captain  


════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════  


"Wait, no," Daniel says behind him, laughing. Hosuh laughs a bit himself, "Are we actually going to the zoo?" and turns his head toward the voice that follows, "Yeah! We need animal therapy after exams," Hosuh nods with a light laugh.

"Oh, I still need to punch you," Hosuh gets up from where he sat on the couch, phone in one hand, and his other raised. "No!" Dan flees. "Stephen said so! I'm not strong enough to bruise you!" Hosuh doesn't chase after him despite saying that, and instead retreats upstairs to his room to make himself look a little more alive. The braid got good reactions last time, Dan said it looked nice, Jay said it made him look less of a mess, Ann said it was cute, (despite himself denying it, resulting in Ann telling Hosuh to learn how to just take a compliment,) but Stephen didn't comment on it. Maybe he could try something else to see if he gets Stephen's attention...  


———————————————

  
  
After hearing the new bonding activity the trash rat Daniel has set up, Stephen is kind of excited. I mean like, fuck you Dan and all, forcing me to leave this humble abode, but animals are the best. People who don't like animals aren't real, that's why companies can make money off of putting them in captivity. Stephen tries to forget that animals are being exploited for money. Stephen instead thinks of Hosuh. He worries a little that he upset Hosuh, but he can't understand people through text well, so he'll just have to wait and see. Speaking of, he wonders if Hosuh's gonna do his hair in a braid again. Stephen seems to get caught up on everything Hosuh does, which probably isn't healthy. He swears he has a minor heart attack everytime there's _that one thing_, and the braid? That's one of those things. Stephen considers making another rant in his phone's notes about it, but puts it off so that he can get ready. There wasn't a time mentioned, so he might as well just be ready as soon as possible.

So he did, and only when he was picking an outfit did he realize he's trying too hard to look attractive. Ever since this 'situation' came along Stephen has been losing grasp on his narcissism, and worried more on how he looked. Weird how a simple crush can do that much. Maybe it'd help if Stephen replaced those negative thoughts with what Stephen would've said. Definitely something like 'I'm already beautiful it doesn't matter what I wear' but damn, does it matter to him even so. He does decide on something after accepting that no one else cares as much as he does, with hesitation. Stephen's not used to this insecurity, but he'll power through it. Making his way downstairs, he goes to the kitchen to see if anyone's cooked anything yet, and Stephen is going to go into cardiac arrest.

Daniel was sitting at the table while Hosuh was cooking, but nevermind those details, Hosuh's hair is in a bun. A messy, but stable low bun. This is definitely what going into cardiac arrest feels like. Stephen sits across from Daniel, which he now notices he had his laptop with him. Daniel in return notices the flushed agony Stephen is going through and just ruffles his mohawk, which would be fine, if Stephen hadn't been so worried about how his hair looked on top of everything else. "Dan!" he whisper-shouts, using his fingers as a comb for the mohawk. Daniel just laughs at his behavior, which is when Hosuh turns around to see Stephen there, "You two are so off today, I swear," immediately turning back to his current workstation. Daniel just smirks at Stephen and returns to his whatever's on his laptop. He assumes the bun was something Dan influenced with how he's reacting. Stephen decides he's felt too many emotions in the last five minutes and takes his phone out to cool down. Breakfast passes with some brief glances at Hosuh, even so.  


———————————————

  
  
After finding out that they were going at 11AM, Stephen had about an hour and a half to spare. Since Stephen has felt especially claustrophobic just from Hosuh's presence, he decided that cleaning would get his mind off things. Normally Dan or Hosuh do most of the cleaning, with Jay and himself cleaning when deemed necessary. Here's to hoping that his mind cleans itself in the process. Stephen arrives to the living room after grabbing a duster from their supplies closet, awkwardly plugging in earbuds to his phone and tapping on it with the duster in his right hand, and putting the earbuds in his ears. Cleaning without music would be a crime.

It may be a very minimal and unnecessary clean using a duster, but Stephen takes a while on the shelf in the corner of the room next to the television in particular. Something about the organization of knick-knacks and such bothered him, so he found himself taking everything off and carefully setting them on the floor, planning out in his head where everything should go while giving the now bare surfaces a quick dust-over. When reaching for the first knick-knack, he noticed a figure next to him. Glancing at them for a second, it's no surprise that it's the trash rat. Green highlighter hair probably bright enough to see from the heavens. Taking out his earbuds, Stephen is relatively surprised when the highlighter-head says, "So, I heard that someone fell asleep during a hug," Stephen would've choked if he hadn't accepted this reality was coming already. Stephen keeps placing things on the shelf in an attempt to show disinterest. "Hmm. Sounds like something you shouldn't care about," Daniel chuckles a little at that, "It just stuck in my mind quite a bit, it seems like you can't even look him in the eye," Daniel doesn't need to say the name for Stephen to know who he's talking about.

"It's the _bun_, you noticed it too clearly, these things aren't good on my heart," before Stephen could consider continuing, a voice from behind himself and Daniel perks up, "_Wooow_, I knew something was up," Stephen whips around to a yellow highlighter lookin' ass exiting the kitchen. "Jay!" the mentioned throws his hands up in defense, "I just overheard these things, I am not guilty of anything," Daniel rushes at him just to pull him to the couch, quietly explaining Stephen's entire situation with no hesitation the moment Jay found out. Stephen just puts one earbud in as to not miss anything Dan gets wrong.

It'd be only three minutes— Stephen knows this because one song has passed between then and now, —until Dan saw Hosuh coming downstairs, and quickly changed the topic to League of Legends. Stephen just needed to not look over and it was fine. Hosuh still made it into his vision when he came over to the shelf to readjust the positioning of what Stephen had been organizing for the past fifteen minutes. Stephen tried to focus on only organizing, not how close he is, but he's _so_ close to him and their hands are nearly touching. Hosuh does step back to view the new arrangement upon the shelf— thank god, he can breathe —and he's satisfied enough that the retreats to wherever. Stephen can't take cleaning anymore. Cleaning has been ruined for him. He collapses on the couch, his legs draped over Dan's, and drops the duster on the floor. Daniel laughs at his behavior.

Stephen zones out on his phone while Dan and Jay converse quietly about ideas for Stephen and Hosuh to bond. Stephen just wants to go to the zoo already.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OHOHO ANOTHER TWO PARTER INCOMING sorry for a bit of a later than usual post, i forgot to write lmao  
just a fun update: i've been putting this and my jaydan fic signal on wattpad under the same username! it's been going swell :) i still don't know how people find good fics on wattpad though nothing stands out D: on a different note making covers for the two fics was fun  
sadly i don't think i'll finish enough chapters in time for a halloween edition chapter, but when it comes in the timeline within the story i'll try to think of something interesting...


	8. Day 15 Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SURPRISE!! i finished this in one day so i might as well post it early! it's a bit of a doozy, so buckle in!

After a boring car ride they reach the zoo, which to no surprise had barely anywhere to park. Meeting up with Ann and Joe after entering was a long interaction. Jay and Joe started conversing, probably about Pokémon, and Ann messed up Hosuh's bun so Stephen found himself staring when Hosuh redid it. Daniel nudged him playfully, so he took it as a sign that he was staring too long and pulled his eyes away. Ann then takes it upon herself to initiate this zoo adventure, "I have an idea! Why don't we try to find animals that look like us?" Daniel gets excited by the idea of course, "Ohoho! Well Stephen is definitely a giraffe," Stephen scoffs, "I don't look like a giraffe at all!" He hears Hosuh chuckle quietly next to him, "I don't know, I can kind of see it," Stephen feels his face heating up from merely Hosuh's attention being on him, "Oh yeah?! Well, Daniel looks like a gorilla!" Daniel fakes an offended gasp, "How dare you," Joe laughs at their antics, "Well, I think we're on the right path with finding out what our fursonas would be," Everyone bursts out either laughing or yelling at Joe.

They disperse, Jay, Joe and Dan as one team and Hosuh, Ann, and himself as another. Stephen has a hard time keeping his eyes on the map guide when there's so many animals to look at, almost forgetting that they have a task at hand. Ann then jumps excitedly when she turns the corner, making Stephen and Hosuh power-walk to see what she saw: Flamingos. "They're literally me!" She doesn't hesitate to take her phone out to take a bunch of pictures of her and the flamingos in frame, along with pictures of the flamingos on their lonesome.

The silver-haired to Stephen's left then speaks while she's distracted on getting a good photo, "Stephen, why haven't you said anything about my hair yet?" Stephen doesn't exactly know what to say in response to that, and just ends up unable to say anything when he tries to open his mouth. "It's just that Dan has pointed it out, Jay has pointed it out, Ann doesn't hesitate to point it out, but you haven't said anything!" Hosuh's tone is mildly whiny when he says this, staring at Stephen head on like he's trying to prove some sort of point. It's cute, but Stephen can't think about that right now. Still a confused mess, he says "Well, what do you want me to say? That it's cute?" Stephen regrets adding on the last part, and his face just heats up instead. Hosuh just groans and looks away, "No, that's what Ann always says! It's not even cute, I just wanted to see if you noticed or if you just didn't care," Stephen desperately wants to question him on that, but doesn't so that his chances of his blushing being noticed is lower. Hosuh's tone made him worry a little about if he should've thought more before saying something instead of being a total flustered mess over his sudden confrontation.

Moving onward, they come across the giraffes. To which Ann only says "It does look like you! You're both tall, you both have lanky legs, you both have a dumb face..." Stephen is embarrassed about his perfectly good legs being called out like this. This calls for narcissism mode. "Wow, look, I'll go through with this, but Stephen is his own species and a very attractive one at that, so I _refuse_ to give in—" Ann playfully slaps his arm "Just take your dang pictures already and let's find Hosuh's animal equivalent!" Stephen obliges and forces himself to take cute pictures with the giraffes in the back, making sure the giraffes take up most of the frame. Stephen takes a lot less time than Ann did. They take a second to look at the map, trying to figure out what animal Hosuh would be. Ann points at an image on the map, "I think Hosuh looks like a hippo," Stephen gets offended on Hosuh's behalf and defends him, "No he doesn't, he looks like a panda," Ann agrees, so they drag a confused Hosuh through a building to get to the panda bears.

This building was the aquarium part which made Stephen slow down, wanting to look at every container of fish, mesmerized by the dim lights from the tanks lighting up the darkness. What Stephen didn't know is that this aquarium had one of those tunnels where you can see the fish all around you, making him too excited to even voice it. Stephen unconsciously wrapped his left arm around Hosuh's right arm, securing the hold by putting his right hand on Hosuh's bicep. He snapped out of it when he heard Hosuh mumble something, and tried to casually put his arms back to his sides, only for Hosuh to grab a hold of his wrist and continue like that wasn't something that happened.

What.

Not even the humidity of the aquarium can excuse how hot his body temperature is right now.

Stephen tries to deal with it normally: He's just holding your wrist in a friendly way, he's probably just reassuring you that the awkward arm holding that you weren't aware of doing was fine. Stephen really wished Hosuh said something, and really wished he heard what he mumbled. Stephen worries he can tell that he's blushing just from the heat of his wrist. Stephen doesn't want to look at him. Stephen looks anyways.

He's smiling, looking at all the commotion of fish around them. His eyes practically reflecting the lively water through the glass. He begins to turn his head toward Stephen's side of the tunnel. Stephen looks away. Hosuh giggles. Fuck. If he would just say something, that'd be great.

He doesn't.

When they exited the building, they made their way to the pandas, bumping into their friends while they approach it. Everyone quickly talked about what animals they've decided they look like. Stephen didn't fail to notice Dan and Jay glancing at and mimicking the hand that was holding Stephen hostage just to tease him. Turns out, everyone else had taken pictures except Hosuh, which is what makes him finally let go of Stephen's wrist to approach the panda exhibit. Everyone showed their photos, Dan with a gorilla, Jay with a tiger, and Joe with a monkey, a monkey with a very fluffy mane at that. Despite the maned monkey, no one could get over the flamingos in Ann's pictures, Jay already moving on towards the aquarium building to reach the flamingos. Joe and Dan excitedly following, Dan saying "I'll see you guys back at the entrance!" leaving the three to finish their route around. Hosuh finishes taking pictures, so they spend their way back aww-ing over animals, with Ann taking more pictures than Hosuh and Stephen were. Stephen is thankful that Hosuh doesn't try to hold onto his wrist again.

They make it back to the entrance and it's all excited chatting from there as they decide to look at the gift shop. Stephen doesn't trust the inflated prices so he has to resist the cute knick-knacks, no matter how nice they'd look in his room or on the shelf he cleaned earlier today. Instead he picked up a yellow spiky geode from a display and shows it to his yellow spiky friend, "Jay, it's you," Jay laughs, "Oh my god, time to pair everyone to a geode now..." Stephen frantically shakes his head while laughing. Hosuh came over after overhearing and found what Stephen assumed to be an amethyst geode on the display, "Are there any green ones?" he says, handing Stephen the geode without looking at him, their hands fumbling together for a moment, giving Stephen flashbacks comparable to heat flash of the tunnel incident. Yeah, that's what he'll call it, the tunnel incident. "I don't think there is," Jay responds as he looks through the display. "Aw, I was thinking we could get friend geodes. Like friendship bracelets," They put the geodes back, Stephen trying his best to remain calm at everything Hosuh does.

They leave the gift shop and part ways with Ann and Joe, Joe holding a little giraffe stuffed animal he got with no hesitation, saying something about painting it blue and replacing it's eyes with buttons? I don't know. But they make it home and Stephen has never retreated to his room so fast. Of course he's gonna have to go downstairs to eat eventually, but right now Stephen needs a minute to go over everything that happened those past two hours. Was it even two hours? He has no idea. He sits on his bed and immediately opens his notes instead of checking the time to rant.  
  
  
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10/6/19  
  
WHAT THE FUCK EVEN HAPPENED EARLIER what did Hosuh grabbing my wrist even mean HE LAUGHED THE MOMENT I LOOKED AWAY TOO Was it just weird timing? A coincidence? Did he notice me looking at him? I'm so overwhelmed with thoughts and emotions I really wish Hosuh had said something about it so I could get an idea of what all of that meant I hope the heat didn't actually travel to my arms that'd be embarrassing THIS IS ALREADY EMBARRASSING WHO AM I KIDDING Dan and Jay teasing me just made me more embarrassed I'm so mentally drained my head hurts I think I need a nap  
  
  
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Stephen decides to stop there because damn, his head does hurt from thinking so much, and staring at his bright phone doesn't help. He's definitely breathing too fast and his face is warm from recalling everything that happened. Things are clearly just getting worse. At this point Stephen would just want these feelings to go away overnight. All of the change that's happened with himself because of this sucks, he feels like an angsty teen all over again, learning what it's like to fall in love for the first time. It's the worst. So he curls in on himself and cries over it. Stephen has never cared too much for love, you could ask anyone he's known for years and they'd say that, so this is definitely a big deal that he doesn't want to deal with. There's so many factors that go into this that Stephen has had cross his mind.

He's known Hosuh since high school, would Hosuh even like him romantically if they've been friends for so long? He doesn't even think him and Hosuh have had a conversation about romantic endeavors even, and if they have, it must've been brief. He doesn't even know if Hosuh likes guys! He only knows that Hosuh doesn't really care, and that if he falls in love with someone, he does, and that's that! Which does leave a lot of possibility of him liking a man, but it also leaves a lot of possibility of him not liking Stephen in particular! So he just forces the tears out so he doesn't have to deal with it later, pulling on his mohawk so that the pain helps the tears come out. Stephen knows he has to go eat soon, but he doesn't care. Today was too much on him. So he crawls into his bed after kicking his shoes off, not even changing into something more comfortable, and lays there. His headache lulls him to sleep.

Stephen hates these feelings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> daniel holds the camera up and points it towards his friends, "everybody say 'canada!'--" stephen wizzes by on skis in a giraffe costume, **"I'M A GIRAFFE"**  
i, too, didn't expect this to get angsty while i was writing it but good fluff comes with a big price  
i can't wait to see y'all cry in the comments, i stan the comments i get  
(also the entire "finding animals we look like" idea was just snatched from seeing my faves, ateez, at a zoo finding their animal equivalents. im exposing myself.)


	9. Day 16

Stephen is hesitant to open his eyes when he stirs awake. When he does, it's pitch black. Other than whatever the unknown light source is outside his window, he couldn't see the moon out when he looked. Stephen picked up his phone that he didn't bother plugging in before he slept, turning it on, he finds out it's 4:47AM. So the sun's gonna come up soon. Unlocking his phone, he checks his notifications. He has multiple texts from the groupchat, plus from Daniel and Hosuh separately. He decides to read whatever was going on while he slept, starting with the groupchat.  
  
  
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Yesterday - 7:53PM  


**green garbage**

I'm making dinner!!!!!  


**Hosuh the art slave**

I'm coming to help!!!  


**naruto**

I'm not coming to help!!!  


**green garbage**

Thanks for your input, Jay! 😊  


**naruto**

I feel oddly threatened. :v  


**green garbage**

I'm making up for Stephen's absence, wherever that fool is

I'm gonna go check on him 👀👀

Update he has just disregarded everything and is sleeping  


**Hosuh the art slave**

What! He better eat when he wakes up  


**naruto**

How long has he been sleeping? :v  


**green garbage**

I don't know!!! I'll leave him alone tho.  
  
  
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That was where the groupchat left off, it seems Hosuh and Dan messaged him around the same time after that, so he starts with Hosuh's messages.  
  
  
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Yesterday - 9:36PM  


**Hosuh the art slave**

I don't know when you're waking up but you're worrying Dan! (and me too but you know how Dan is)

Remember to take of yourself please! Don't pull a Hosuh.  
  
  
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Stephen smiles at Hosuh's concern and his comment at the end, recalling during the summer how often Hosuh spent time animating, forgetting that he has to take of himself. Daniel had to bother Hosuh until he'd take a break. It was also a bad time for Hosuh's mentality, but he's glad he's been doing better. Stephen goes onto Daniel's messages.  
  
  
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Yesterday - 9:41PM  


**green garbage**

Stephen did you forget to put the notification sound on on your phone or what!!!

I'm gonna purposefully send a lot of separate messages to test this

You need to come eat!!!!!

I don't know if I want to wake you up tho because you stayed up late y'know HUGGING HOSUH👀👀👀👀

Speaking of Hosuh WHAT WAS THAT AT THE ZOO? We need to talk about it!

If Jay isn't asleep when you wake up I'm bringing him with we've been texting back and forth about it!

Okay you're definitely not waking up

I'm worried though because this is a Hosuh thing!!! You're doing a Hosuh anxiety thing!!!

If he's projecting on you I'm gonna cry sad and happy tears because being a hermit is bad but you're also less rude

Maybe that's why you've been so soft, Hosuh is unknowingly affecting you hmm🤔🤔🤔

I'll leave you alone I'm gonna purposely stay up late to talk to you though

Wait no I'll sleep earlier and wake up early BIG BRAIN  
  
  
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Stephen lingers on one part of the messages, "Hosuh is unknowingly affecting you". I mean, maybe it's more-so the feelings than Hosuh himself, but it makes sense. Stephen doesn't dwell on it longer and instead would rather vent about this because he definitely needs a second opinion, maybe even a third opinion on this new Hosuh predicament if Jay's awake.

Stephen's stomach growls at him, missing lunch and dinner was a bad idea. Stephen walks through the darkness to the door, stepping out of his room and navigates downstairs to the kitchen, which always has a light on. There's not really a rule where you have to keep it on, they just do. "They" as in Jay when he needs a midnight snack, or when he needs a midnight snack and he's even the slightest bit tipsy. Jay is too clumsy to risk having the light off. Stephen doesn't want to make a ruckus with cooking something, so instead he scrounges the cupboards for something that'll temporarily sustain him.

"Hey buddy," Stephen jumps and turns his head to the voice, it's no surprise Jay is up this late. Jay laughs at his reaction, "I'm pretty sure everyone's still awake, I'll make you something," Jay saying that makes Stephen wonder if Hosuh's awake, but it's a short-lived thought, "You don't have to make me anything, I can make food for myself," Stephen goes to rummage through the cupboards again only for Jay to lightly pull his arms away. "You're probably not feeling well if you slept for so long. When was the last time you ate?" Ah, so Jay is giving him dadditude. When Jay gets on someone's case it's for a good reason, Dan's worrying probably made him worry too. "Breakfast," Stephen feels a little guilty that he didn't think to attend to his basic needs before having his sudden breakdown. "Really? So you slept before eating lunch?" Stephen avoids Jay's eyes, "I fell asleep probably not even an hour after we got home," Jay just silently prepares the workspace for cooking, meaning that Jay is probably mad or disappointed. Stephen doesn't blame him.

Stephen made himself cozy at the kitchen table scrolling through his phone, eating the BLT that Jay had quickly made for him, and he's sure that the sound and smell of the cooking lured Daniel out of his room. The moment Daniel saw him he went to sit across from him at the table, "We have a lot to discuss," he says, pressing his hands together to point at Stephen. Stephen just laughs at the confrontation, and gets right to the point of it, "Daniel, I had a mental breakdown over everything that happened and passed the fuck out," Daniel is clearly surprised at how easy it was for Stephen to say that, all with a smile on his face. "Wait, so, you just got so overwhelmed that you fell asleep?" Dan questions, and Stephen is probably speaks too excitedly, "Yeah! I also had a headache, but yeah!" Dan nervously smiles, looking to Jay for a second to see if he's as confused as he is, "Are you okay?" Despite Stephen's temporary angsty transition of sorts from earlier, Stephen is much too eager to talk about everything, "Yeah, don't worry about it right now, I cannot hold back everything that's happened," Daniel laughs, "Well, go on then? I need to know about what that wrist holding was,"

"Okay, so," Stephen lays his hands flat on the table, and nearly ends up laughing at himself, "I probably look so crazy, I had a breakdown however many hours ago, and here I am! It's ya boy!" Daniel and Jay laugh with him, meaning he clearly looks crazy right now. He quickly lowers his energy levels so he can get to all the details, "Okay now shut up, I'm so pent up with emotions that I need to let out. So first of all Hosuh confronted me on not saying anything about his hair?" Stephen says as a question, because that still confused him. Dan's in disbelief too, "Did he now?" "He did! I don't know why, but he did!" Jay snickers at the both of them, "You two sound like girls discussing school drama," Daniel immediately gets into character for it, voice and all, "We're talking about our crushes, I don't even know why I even know why I invited you to my sleepover party, Jayne," Everyone laughs at the sudden bit that has spurred.

The chaotic energy continued to bounce off everyone as the bit goes on for longer than it should, seeing as it made Hosuh come out of his room this late, his hair down since he was probably relaxing before this. Or early, technically. "You guys are loud, what's so funny?" Stephen panics a little from his presence, until Daniel says, still in character, "We're talking about our crushes, like, oh my god, did you girls _see_ Daniel today? O-M-G," Hosuh laughs at the dumb bit too, Stephen joins in the bit just because, "Oh my god, no, we _have_ to talk about Stephen! Stephen is _so_ hot," Hosuh does the voice too, adding excessive hand gestures while he talks, "Oh my god, I _know_, right?!" Stephen tries not to overthink that Hosuh joined in on the bit at that exact moment in that exact context.

Hosuh then goes out of character to softly smile at him, "You're okay though, right? Dan's worrying is contagious, I don't want you to have a second emo phase," Dan laughs loudly "Not again! Never again!" Stephen scoffs at him, "Shut up, you had a Rainbow Magic phase!" Jay doesn't miss a beat on saying "You mean those fairy books?! I forgot all about those," Mumbling the last part to himself. Daniel tries his best to defend himself, "Look, my sister had so many of them, and I just had to know! But everyone called me a fairy and I didn't know what it meant until after the fact!" Hosuh laughs nervously and lightly strokes Daniel's hair, "Oh no, Dan..." Dan just waves a dismissive hand, "No, it's fine, it's 2019, we're gay-aware now," causing another bout of laughter around the room.

Stephen tries to change it back to a normal conversation, "Why are you all up anyways, isn't it five in the morning?" Dan is quick to respond, "I got five hours of sleep, I'm good," Stephen does not think that sounds good but he doesn't have time to protest when Jay says, "Late night League," Stephen is quick this time, though, "Ew, League," Hosuh quietly laughs as Dan argues, "Ew, DOTA," but Stephen argues back, "What's that character, fuckin' uhhh, Beemo?" Jay seems to genuinely feel attacked by the tone in his voice, "Do _not_ talk shit about Teemo, I will gut you if you talk about my son like that," Stephen and Hosuh laugh at his reaction, Hosuh catches his breath to give his reasoning for being up in a sing-song voice, "And _I_ stayed up to work on art!" To which Dan and Jay both give him a disappointed stare. "Don't look at me like that, it's for Ann! I'm coming up with emote concepts for her," Making Dan and Jay nod in understanding.

"Anyway, I know Dan wanted to lecture you, I just wanted to see what all the commotion was about," Hosuh waves in parting as he retreats back upstairs, everyone giving their 'bye's. Daniel is quick to take action the second he's gone, standing up to pull Stephen off the chair, "We're taking this outside, the risk is too high in here," With Jay following behind them outside to the porch, where Stephen had originally told Daniel about his situation a week or two ago. He's lost track of time. The three sat down the porch, Jay somehow with a bottle of rum that Stephen did not see him get, and Daniel's eagerness does not waver, "Okay, so he confronted you about how you didn't say anything about the bun..." Signally Stephen to continue. "That was kind of it for that, but he did say that he just wanted to see if I noticed or just didn't care," Jay takes a swig from the bottle in his hand and just says "Hmm," making Dan turn his head to notice he has alcohol in the first place, "Really? Right now?" Dan just rolls his eyes instead of waiting for an answer, "Forget him, go on,"

"So after that we were in the aquarium building, right? So I may have spaced out and clung to Hosuh's arm—" Daniel interrupts him, "Huh?!" So Stephen shuts him down, "Shut up. So Hosuh said something, but I didn't hear, it made me realize what I was doing though. So I was going to try to casually take my hands away, but he just... grabs onto my wrist," He says with disbelief at the end, ever so consistently confused about it. Daniel sits there, hand on his chin, clearly intrigued, "Huh," Jay adds on to it with another "_Huh_," at a higher tone before Dan speaks again, "So he didn't say anything?" Stephen speaks exasperatedly with added hand gestures for flair, "No! I would have preferred if he said something about it, but he didn't!"

The green-haired sits there in thought, the yellow-haired sits there with his drink. Until Jay's intoxicated brain comes up with a sentence, "Well it seems like he's definitely coming onto you," Stephen's exasperated tone sustains, "No, don't get my hopes up!" Jay just throws his arms up to a shrug, "I don't think I'm wrong!" Daniel is quick to follow the train of thought Jay set up, "To be fair, Hosuh has been styling his hair a lot more than he would normally, and it seems he's trying to get your attention," Stephen tries to object his claims, "Bu—" "I'm not done," Wow. "It's odd because you only recently realized you liked him romantically. It could simply mean nothing, it could mean he coincidentally fell in love with you too, or he's purposefully leading you on," Daniel's sudden deductiveness has Stephen in shock, "Hosuh would never!" Daniel just gives him a smug smirk, "Which part?" The blush on Stephen's face stews on low heat while Jay says, "Me and Dan talked about Hosuh's recent behavior, so most of his monologue was me," Daniel slaps the back of Jay's neck, earning a yelp out of his (probably) alcoholic friend, "Let me look smart!"

Stephen sits on these thoughts as they talk for a while, Jay eventually leaves to take a nap, Dan leaves to do the dishes, and Stephen is left with the slowly rising sun while he sits on the porch. Despite having a short stress cry once Dan left, it's relaxing overall. Stephen could probably fall asleep sitting up this way. Maybe he would've, if he hadn't heard the slide door open and close. Turning his head to see what, or rather who, had been occupying his thoughts. "Dan told me you were out here. It's been a while since I've watched a sunrise," Hosuh sits next to him, Stephen doesn't say anything other than a hum. Hosuh is clearly looking at him. "Were you crying?" Stephen could only guess he knew from his sniffling, maybe his eyes were puffy too? Stephen never understood how eyes could look puffy. "Yeah, I'll be fine though," Worry laces Hosuh's voice, "Okay... Promise it?" Stephen just laughs, "I promise. I'm a strong independent Stephen, Hosuh," Hosuh smiles at him, but it's not a soft smile. It's one of those smug, comparable to Daniel-type smiles.

If Stephen really is stuck playing cat and mouse like Daniel suggests, he wonders how long he can hold back these feelings until the dam breaks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.  
we at 2k hits POG!!! B^) the fic has been doing well on wattpad too which is nice :D it might even surpass the hits on here...


	10. Day 28

It's October 22nd now, it'd been a while since anything too eventful had happened. Life went on as usual with occasional moments with Hosuh. Daniel had recently been telling him how he'd been meaning to drag him on another Hosuh bonding escapade, especially with the 'progress made so far'. Those were his words, not Stephen's. Daniel's been caught up with helping his family with some stuff. It's been maybe two weeks though, so Stephen has been on high alert for whenever Dan decides to pull his shit again. Luckily, less time being forced to go outside means more time to play DOTA. Nothing could ruin this for him.

Then he hears yelling of two voices from downstairs. "It's snowing!" "Jay, don't go outside, you're gonna get a cold!" "Fuck you, Dan!" Ah. Stephen looks out the window, and sure enough, it's snowing. He always thought snow was nice. Then again, he reminisces of how his parents let him play out in the snow as much as he wanted, until he found out it was a lesson of how playing irresponsibly gets you hurt, and in his case, sick. Snow was ruined for a while to him, but now he can admire it. Though, he prefers staying in with something warm to drink. Stephen wasn't going to check on the two, until he went to his window to see Jay, not even in winter-wear, staking bottles of alcoholic beverages into the snow and laying beside them. Jay would hit him if he said it out loud, but Jay is a slut for snow. Stephen begrudgingly made his way out of his room to go downstairs, seeing that Hosuh is witnessing all of this from the couch. Dan was outside now too, trying to drag Jay up and off of the snow.

Stephen feels a cold breeze coming in from the opened slide door, making him shiver, "You're gonna want to pull him in quick before I lock you both out! It's cold!" Dan just gives a cry of distress. Hosuh however speaks coherent words, "Come here, I have blankets," Hosuh pats the empty spot next to him on the couch as Stephen loops around to sit next to him, feeling a little awkward being so close to Hosuh once he's gotten himself in the blankets. He can bare it though. That is until another cold breeze flows in, and Hosuh moves closer to lean into Stephen. Hosuh's body temperature is warm, and Stephen's is about to be if he can't control how flushed he gets. This isn't even the first time him and Hosuh have been this close, they've had plenty of movie nights like this, without the room feeling like an icebox. It's just different to Stephen now, which is a shame. He didn't overthink any of this before.

"So, what we up to?" Hosuh hums before replying, "I was bored and Steven Universe reruns were on. It's fucking cold," Stephen lightly slaps Hosuh's arm for the uncalled for strong language, but disregards it anyway, "I'm the superior Stephen, for starters I have a cool mohawk," Stephen looks to Hosuh just to see he has been giving Stephen his full attention. Hosuh has been doing so a lot recently, so he's slowly getting used to it. "Okay, but does Stephen have magic powers and magic moms? Didn't think so," Stephen scoffs at Hosuh's sass, "If I had magic powers I don't think I'd tell you!" Hosuh responds by first lightly shoving him, "So you wouldn't trust me with knowing your secret magic powers?!" Stephen shoves him back, "Not after you sassed me, no!" Hosuh just laughs loudly. His happiness his contagious to Stephen, so he can't help but find himself smiling wide. His smile does falter out of surprise when the silver-haired grabs onto arm and goes back to nestling into him. This is literally cuddling, right? Stephen forces himself to look away.

Whatever this form of cuddling is didn't last long when Daniel came trudging inside with Jay, finally closing the slide door. When Dan saw the two his intentions were clear the moment he said with a condescending tone, "Oh, what're you two up to?" Hosuh flinched and took his hands away when he heard the voice that was previously outside suddenly inside. Hosuh's reaction surprised Stephen a lot more than Dan's teasing did, but he keeps his composure, "Where there is chaos there is Stephen," Daniel doesn't respond after that, and Stephen can only imagine the dumb smirk Dan has on his face. Stephen's eyes can't help but find their way back to Hosuh's face. He's staring at the television, but his face is clearly a little red, same with his ears. Stephen doesn't know what to make of this, so he tries to forget it.

  
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Stephen found himself playing videogames with his friends all day. Since Jay recently splurged for a Nintendo Switch he made sure he got games we could all play together. Stephen can only imagine how much it cost for the console, the games, and the extra controllers altogether. I guess this is Jay's way of showing he doesn't hate us with every fibre of his being. They'd wasted time away by playing Super Mario Party, which never had a dull moment. Stephen remembers how mad Dan got when Stephen took one of his stars, he was convinced he'd slap his neck at least. Thank god Daniel has self control. Anyway, all that chaotic energy had settled down once they started eating dinner.

"I'm just saying, and Ann's been saying too," Stephen tunes his ears back into the conversation he'd been missing, which was whatever dumb stuff Dan was going on about, "We'd be great YouTubers, or streamers even!" Jay just sighs, "Dan, just because we'd be great at it, it doesn't mean it's a good idea," "It's a fun idea though! We'd make so many friends, and then we'd get shipped with those friends!" A choir of 'No's were heard around the table. "Okay, then we'd get shipped with each other!" The choir continues with it's disagreements, Dan scoffs, "You guys just aren't fun, I'll make a YouTube channel on my own, then you'll all be sorry! I'll leech off Ann's Twitch fame! I'll make Hosuh make cute art for me!"

Stephen, as always recently, is quick to defend Hosuh, "Hosuh has enough work on his plate, I don't think he has room in his schedule for a lowly peasant such as yourself," Everyone laughs, but Dan laughs the loudest, "No worries, I'd be paying him in exposure once I get YouTube famous," Stephen's no stranger to the 'I'll pay you in exposure' horror stories. Yikes. "No! Never pay in exposure!" Hosuh just giggles, "I mean like, we're friends, I'd take like five or ten dollars and make stills for him," "No! Hosuh!" Stephen's outburst makes everyone laugh, which in turn makes Stephen laugh at himself too. Overall, everything about today was really nice. He feels a little exhausted from all the time he spent with his friends, and knowing Hosuh, he's probably even more exhausted. Of _course_ he spins the thought to Hosuh, of _course..._

When Stephen retreats to his room, that's when he gets back to the thoughts. It's almost unsettling how relaxed it's been after so many outings, but that hasn't stopped Hosuh from merely existing. Stephen has had what Daniel said however long ago in mind, about how Hosuh might like him too, maybe even leading him on. Stephen always seems to forget about those suggestions when Hosuh looks at him, though. Maybe Hosuh's just a witch that put a spell on him; a spell that makes him an idiot. Stephen has been trying to dismiss everything as Hosuh being Hosuh, but some things are just off, like his behavior in particular. Hosuh has had his attention on Stephen a lot, but in a weird way. Hosuh has been looking at him just about everytime he talks, occasionally getting a little touchy, like leaning on him for support when he clearly doesn't need it, or lightly grasping his wrist, lightly in comparison to 'the tunnel incident' at least.

It's been confusing Stephen's brain a lot, and it's been overwhelming, and seeing Hosuh actually flush earlier from being basically called out on his actions just puts more questions in his brain. It was really cute though, so Stephen is both living and dying at the same time. Who is he kidding, being around Hosuh— who is consistently adorable that it makes him mad when he thinks about it, —is like living and dying at the same time. He is in limbo. He is a love ghost. Here lies Youwa "Stephen" Ng: Died because Hosuh breathed. Stephen didn't fully process that he's hugging Torchy while laying in a fetal position on his bed until now. Despicable, he's not even in comfy sleeping clothes yet, and Stephen doesn't want to wake up fully dressed again. It was more weird than uncomfy.

Stephen finishes getting ready for bed, and checks the clock on his phone before sleeping, 11:28PM. Huh. Maybe Stephen is finally getting his sleep schedule back on track? Whatever, he turns off the light on the nightstand and turns over to hug Torchy as he waits to pass out.

Time continues to pass, without any sleep showing itself. Stephen is agitated and goes to check his phone, but it just isn't there. Odd. He's too sleepy to process it though. He goes to his door, but can't seem to open it. He turns and sees the window, but outside the window is only black. He tries to turn the lamp on, but it doesn't work. He is able to grab Torchy though, so he holds onto them. He surveys his own room that suddenly feels so foreign to him. He tries opening the door to his bathroom, and it opens. The mirror isn't there, and all that shows is the wood of where it would be. He turns on the sink, and only black comes out. He quickly tries to turn it off, but the black sludge keeps exiting the faucet.

He begins to panic a little, continuously turning the knob back and forth to try and make it stop, but it doesn't. He goes back to the door that leads to the hallway to open it and get Dan's help, but it still won't open. He turns his head to the bathroom to see the sludge dripping in long strands out of the shower head, and even rising out of the drain. The sink begins to overflow onto the floor and Stephen has no idea what to do. He feels his eyes burning with the want to cry. He keeps trying to open the door, twisting the doorknob and pushing his weight into the door to try and open it, double-checking that the door isn't locked, even kicking the door, but it doesn't open.

Surely someone is up and they'd hear his distress, right? The black sludge is rushing out of sink and out of the shower head, reaching his ankles. Why hasn't anyone heard him? He tries to speak, but he can't seem to find words forming. His mouth drools with the black sludge now. He shouldn't have tried talking at all. Stephen doesn't have many choices left now that the black sludge is up to his knees. He trudges through the darkness to the window, holding Torchy tight. Stephen unlocks the window, and opens it. Within seconds all he can see is black.

His eyes shoot open as he coughs up the darkness that never flooded his senses to begin with. He shakes as he sits up in bed, hastily breathing now that he realizes he wasn't actually drowning in whatever that black, oily, slime-looking liquid was. He touches his face, which feels numb, but he's clearly crying. Stephen doesn't feel safe in the slightest being in his room, so he leaves with the stuffed animal he had been holding onto. He really hopes Hosuh is awake.

  
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Hosuh looks over the line art he's finished, looking for any messy lines. His eyes scout the digital canvas as music continues to hum into his ears. Glancing at the clock he sees it's 1AM now, meaning he's been working for two hours now, and he should definitely take a break. He was going to check Discord until he heard a soft but fast knock on his door. He takes his earbuds out and sets them specifically over Hallo's paws, who he's kept on his desk as a moral support stuffed animal. Hosuh is hesitant to get up after sitting for so long, but makes his way to the door. Upon opening it, he's greeted with a very emotionally vulnerable Stephen, holding onto Torchy like it's the only thing keeping him from collapsing.

Hosuh can't find words to say, so he puts a hand on Stephen's arm and sits him down on his bed. Stephen's hold on Torchy loosens, but in turn lets out a choked sob which he tries to muffle with his hand. Hosuh just intertwines his hand with the hand Stephen left on Torchy and leans into him, waiting for him to calm down. Hosuh even dares to look at him and reach up to wipe the tears staining his face. Hosuh doesn't know how to comfort Stephen. I mean, sure, he's seen Stephen cry, but this is a lot different. So Hosuh just tries to comfort him in a way Hosuh likes to be comforted, with touch. It seems to help, since when he moves his hands to under Stephen's left eye, Stephen leans into his hand. It's sweet. His hand probably lingers on his cheek a little too long, so he moves his hand away.

Shortly after, Stephen becomes a lot more calmer than he first was. Stephen's voice is shaky though, "I had a bad dream. I don't know why it affected me so much, I just couldn't be in my room after it," Hosuh hums so he knows he's listening, "You wanna talk about it?" He watches Stephen readjust himself without letting go of his hand, "It was like, black slime-sludge or whatever. It was coming out of the sink, and the shower, and the door out wouldn't open, and it started coming out of my mouth... I don't even know what I was trying to do but I opened the window, it was all black outside, and all of it just flooded in and I woke up," Hosuh thinks about his dream. He doesn't know what dreams mean, but maybe it'd help if they debated what it meant and why it happened. "Maybe... Maybe it means you're overwhelmed, like overflowing with... I dunno, emotion?" He smiles even though it's not funny.

Stephen seems uninterested with how easily he brushes it off, "Maybe. I'm tired, what time is it?" Hosuh glances to the shut off phone he left on the desk even though he already knows the time, "Like one in the morning," Stephen just groans and proceeds to make himself at home in Hosuh's bed, "Fuck it, sleepover," Hosuh misses the warmth that's now left his hand, but he's more excited about the mini sleepover, laughing at him, "Okay, I have to save this and turn everything off though," referring to the setup on his desk. He quickly saves what he'd gotten done, gives Hallo head scritches, and shuts the electronics down. Looking back to Stephen, he lies facing the wall, holding onto Torchy. Before sliding into bed next to him he reaches over and tussles his hair, and Stephen tiredly whines with annoyance. Hosuh just quietly laughs and lies next to him.

Hosuh's fuzzy feelings for this man somehow find a way to grow everyday.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes THAT MUCH TIME passed can you tell im trying to inch closer to halloween in the story?? bahaha  
also i am never gonna be over stephen's chinese name. youwa is our baby  
updates too!!! i've made a twitter and instagram under my lovely lovely stanplan brand which you can find by looking for the username stanplandanplan or going to linktr.ee/stanplan !!! i dunno what i'll do with the instagram, but the twitter is for everything danplan and etc. things!! :D


	11. Day 29 Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> note for a certain part in the story!!  
_italics_ are recalling of events that happened, you'll understand it when it comes!!

"Hey, you wanna wake up?" Stephen stirs awake from a hand lightly shaking him, his brain is still clouded with sleep so he doesn't quite want to wake up. "C'mon, Dan's making breakfast, he'll be sad if you don't come," His head clears enough, starting to actually process what the voice is saying, and starting to process what situation he's in. Right, he went to Hosuh's room in his panicked state. Stephen is an embarrassment. "Mm, what?" Stephen rubs at his eyes, swiping sleep out of them to try and wake up quicker, and looks to the source of the voice, of course, being Hosuh. "Dan's making breakfast, you should go get ready," Hosuh laughs quietly, probably at his groggy behavior, his eye-smile practically lighting up the dim room. Stephen begrudgingly sits up, as much as he would rather bask in the foreign but comforting scent of Hosuh's bed. "I'm gonna be downstairs, don't fall back asleep!" Hosuh yells behind him as he walks out of the room.

Stephen is going to die of embarrassment. If Daniel finds out of about this he's gonna kill him. Stephen notices Torchy on the ground and picks him up. He must've let him roll to the floor when he fell asleep. Which is odd, because Stephen doesn't usually shuffle around in his sleep, and he was sleeping on the side where the wall was. Nevermind it, Stephen gets up to get his phone from his room, and to put different clothes on. He has classes today, and he doesn't want to have to rush. Stepping into his room to put Torchy in his bed, he checks his phone, 9:43. Perfectly enough time, since his classes start at 11. He's goes ahead and gets partly ready so that he can eat breakfast and finish putting himself together later.

  
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Hosuh is going to die of embarrassment. He's lucky that he's a naturally friendly person, he was able to casually wake him up. It's just the shit he pulled when Stephen was sleeping. Hosuh is a sorry, crippling gay mess. Hosuh has been feeling these warm feelings for years without realizing that what he feels is different. Sure, he gets warm feelings when he's with his friends, but it's different with Stephen. It's not just warm feelings, it's fuzzy feelings. He makes Hosuh's heart beat faster, he makes it hard for Hosuh to think sometimes, but most importantly, he makes Hosuh want to be a better person. Of course, Dan's nagging made him try to take care of himself more, but it wasn't for himself, it was so no one would worry about him. It's different when it comes to Stephen, Stephen is kind when he's only with him. He cheers him up, he's a good motivator, he wants Hosuh to do his best and he truly believes in him... He makes Hosuh want to be better and do better for himself rather than anyone else. So that's when he had to come to terms that he's in love with Stephen.

It makes sense, he never felt these kinds of fuzzy feelings when he dated a couple people, y'know, figuring out his sexuality a little. He still doesn't know if he wants to put a label on it, but he's looked into what could apply to him. Stephen was different. When he did the math in his head about why he considers Stephen his best friend a couple of months ago, he was shocked at the result he came to, but it did make sense. Which is why his love for him only grew from there. But he didn't want to ruin all these years of friendship all because he decided to confess to him, besides, Stephen said he's straight! But everything that's happened recently is causing a ton of conflict in his brain, like all the blushing he's been catching him do, all the eyeing he did when he styled his hair those two times, when he grabbed onto his arm in the aquarium part of the zoo... Which is why he's still embarrassed about what he thought to do when Stephen was sleeping.

_Stephen had long been asleep. In fact, Hosuh doesn't know how much time has passed, since he left his phone on his desk. He didn't want to risk waking Stephen up just to check, so he'd just have to find out a different way to fall asleep. Glancing to Stephen's sleeping face, he gets a little entranced by how cute he looks. His lips were slightly parted, face more relaxed than he's ever seen, when Stephen was awake at least. The only thing ruining this view was the bright red-orange and yellow plushie in his arms. It's completely throwing off the color palette. Hosuh tries to delicately remove Torchy from Stephen's arms, lightly pulling and tugging the plushie, treating it like a delicate surgical procedure. He remembers that in the movies he watched as a kid, they usually replace the object with something, but he doesn't exactly have anything in reach... And Hosuh's brain comes up with the dumbest thing that he's more than enough tired to attempt._

_He wiggles Torchy out the rest of the way and sets him aside, immediately replacing the empty space with his hand. He goes to grab Torchy and set him on Stephen's side of the bed, but he tumbles off the bed so Hosuh quickly moves on without it. Out of sight out of mind. Hosuh lifts Stephen's arm carefully, scooting himself into the space between Stephen's arm and upper body, flushing and embarrassed that he's actually doing this right now. After settling himself in the space as comfortably as possible, he looks back up to the resting face of Stephen. Hosuh tenses when the arms he was previously maneuvering a plushie out of accepted him as a replacement, resting themselves on him. Hosuh can't tell if he's in a burning heaven or a fluffy hell._

And that's why Hosuh had told Ann all about it once Stephen left for classes. They walked around the park in between where they both live to talk about it, and Ann made very many suggestive comments and predictions. It just embarrassed him more. If there's one thing he got out of talking to Ann though, it'd be "Next time, just ask him to cuddle instead of disturbing his sleep," and Hosuh agrees. It's just so weirdly romantic to Hosuh, in a good and bad way. It may be embarrassing if it's with a crush, but it's such a nice feeling to be held. So that's his new goal after having completed the others: Cuddling with Stephen when he's awake. How he's gonna initiate that, he doesn't know yet. But he'll figure it out.

  
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Stephen was greeted the second he came through the door by a green highlighter, "I presume you received my text?" Stephen sighs, annoyed. Reminding him of the activity later tonight, "I dread these actions of yours, but I'm just gonna assume you're paying for everything and I'll have a great time," Daniel sputters out an exclamation while Jay laughs at Dan the radioactive rat. Stephen retreats back up to his room to relax before trying to get ready to go to the arcade. Yup, the arcade. A prime pro gamer dating spot, at least that's what it probably is in Daniel's eyes right now. Stephen has been getting less and less concerned about the locations, but when he wasn't as worried about the zoo he ended up regretting. He'll see what happens. The zoo is expansive, the arcade? Can't be bad at all. Actually, it's 7PM, so the arcade he was thinking of is actually gonna close soon. Oh. Dan was gonna take them to the big arcade. Still not as big as the zoo, but definitely more things to distract himself with. To summarize, not a threat.

What _is_ a threat is what happens at the arcade, and Stephen isn't ready for the worst. He's already choosing which games to avoid, DDR for starters. Cannot be trusted. Any shooting game in those big boxes that would definitely give Hosuh motion sickness but he'd play it anyways? No, for Hosuh's sake. Crane games? Rule stays no matter the location: Fuck 'em. Actually, arcades are just everyday carnivals, so ha! With this logic, Stephen will only get mildly flustered and yell to his notes later! He is a genius. Stephen unlocks his phone and opens his notes, ready to yell about last night.  
  
  


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10/23/19

I am either a fool or a genius. Casually just deciding to sleep in Hosuh's bed. Did I really do that? Dan is gonna find out isn't he??? Dan finds out everything at one point who am I kidding. It was so cozy his bed smelled like when you enter someone's else's house for the first time? Like every house has that smell? That, AND it smelled freshly washed it was nice. I'm glad I fell asleep so fast so I wouldn't have time to be embarrassed to sleep next to him.

  
  
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Stephen tries to recall the scent he described until he can smell it without being next to it, but he can't seem to remember it enough. Stephen hopes to pop in Hosuh's room again sometime, something about his room is so home-y... Oh god, wait, Hosuh's gonna style his hair again isn't he? The thought pulled him out of his reminiscing, Stephen is in fear of what's next, assuming he's gonna style his hair. Stephen gets ready quickly to get it over with and see what he's done to his hair this time. So he does, deciding to change shirts, brush his teeth, and then he realizes. He can play this game too. Pulling out his phone and doing a quick Google search he pulls out various things needed from the bathroom's cabinets. After confirming he has everything, he shoots Jay a text.

  
  
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7:43PM

**Me**  
Hey Jay, you wouldn't just so happen to have those earrings you used to wear in high school?

**naruto**  
No way. You're not gonna do it.

**Me**  
Do you have them or not, dickhead?

**naruto**  
I'll be there with them in a second, you are not piercing your ears alone.

**Me**  
If you insist.

  
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Perfect. A minute passes and Jay lets himself in his room, with a box in hand, "Oh, good you already have all the stuff, if you did this alone I know you would fuck up," Jay begins to organize everything he laid out around the sink as Stephen shouts, "Shut up! I would do fine without your help," Jay takes a cotton swab and pours an alcohol substance onto it, "Uh-huh? Are you doing one ear or both ears?" Stephen points to his right ear in particular, "One ear for maximum edge," Jay just hums in excited understanding, "Good, you have taste in piercings," Stephen stares in the mirror, watching his yellow-haired friend swipe the damp cotton over his right ear, "I'm guessing in the most common spot, right?" Stephen hums a 'mhm', getting a little anxious when Jay picks up the sharp needle, turning on the sink's hot water and putting the tip of the needle under it for a while, Stephen expressing his nervousness the whole time, after a couple minutes Jay takes the needle out of the water, "It's best you don't look as I do it, and try not to jump," Stephen just shuts his eyes tightly, his hands in compact fists.

He feels the sting and yelps, jumping a little. "Okay, wait, not done yet," Jay grabs one of the earrings and places it at the end of the needle, replacing it with the earring, "Also, I should tell you, you're gonna need to wash the piercing daily. And you need to keep any earring in there for six weeks," Oh. Stephen didn't read that far into it. How could he be so impulsive. Jay just laughs at his silence, or maybe he had a weird look on his face, "Should've told you that, you're gonna be edgy for six weeks," Stephen laughs at his own clever thought, "I'm edgy always, this is nothing," Jay reorganizes everything on the sink, "I'll be right back with salt to clean the piercing, and it'll be perfect," Jay makes his way out of his room and Stephen looks at the earring in the mirror, since this is from Jay's high school days, it's a silver upside-down crucifix. It's very Jay. If Jay were to re-pierce his ears and wear this, he'd think nothing of it. It looks good on him, so Stephen is willing to commit. And looking at the variety of earrings Jay brought with him. This is going to be great.

Jay comes back with the salt water mixture and uses a swab against the piercing, which hurt quite a bit, but pain is beauty. They do go downstairs and Stephen wished he had a photographic memory for two reasons.

1\. Hosuh's hair was down, but the bundles of hair that laid behind his ears were braided into the back, basically a tight crown around his head, but all the excess hair of the braid he kept it down, resembling something of loose ponytails Stephen has seen in anime. It's elegant, almost. But definitely cute.

2\. Hosuh instantly flushed red when he saw the earring. He can't tell if he's shocked, mad, or both. But from his mannerisms, he's grumpily surprised for some reason. Y'know, despite clearly blushing, which Stephen will be so pissed if he forgets how that looked.

Stephen is gonna suffer from his feelings tonight, but he might as well suffer in style.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> stephen with an earring STEPHEN WITH AN EARRING **STEPHEN WITH AN EARRING** thanks for coming to my ted talk :)  
god this chapter went from going nowhere when i first tried to write it to EVERYWHERE i am unpredictable
> 
> edit: as a reference for how hosuh's hair looks because trust me im confused too i drew it up for y'alls!!! https://www.instagram.com/p/B4yXN4El-a5/


	12. Day 29 Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THIS ONE IS PACKED I DIDN'T REALIZE IT UNTIL IT WAS DONE have fun with this one ;)

"Woah, look at you, did you _just_ pierce that?" Daniel speaks with excitement over the addition to his Stephen's ear, to which Stephen replies "Yes, Jay helped, but I could've done it on my own," He hears Jay scoff as he leans on the wall, which Stephen doesn't miss, "You got something to say, Jay? Huh? Don't make me pierce your ears in your sleep," Jay laughs and grabs the keys to Dan's car, running out the front door. Dan is quick to run after him shouting something about how Jay would crash his car. Now that the area is more empty, Hosuh goes up to Stephen to play with the earring and _god_ he is _so close_ to his face. "It's not fake? You really just pierced your ear?" Stephen can't think up a response as his face burns up. Hosuh backs up a little and clearly notices this. It seems Stephen has caused a chain reaction, because Hosuh's face goes a little red, to which Hosuh retaliates by smiling and doing a quick turn on his heel and walking outside. What the fuck. Stephen follows after and tries to focus on the car ride there.

Arriving to the arcade, which _was_ the big arcade rather than the smaller one, Dan goes ahead and pays for two cards that held their game limit on them, "I'm doing two because it's less money and we can go in pairs! So I call dibs on Jay," Before Stephen or Hosuh could say something, Jay laughs at says "Finally, someone wants me. Unfortunately not a hot girl, but," leaving his sentence there. Dan gives Hosuh responsibility over their own card and quickly powerwalks off with Jay. Hosuh hums in thought, grabbing onto Stephen's arm and moving his hand down to his wrist. Hosuh begins walking before Stephen's brain can catch up, tripping over himself a little, but quickly bringing his thoughts back down to earth.

Hosuh scopes out the games as they walked around, steering himself and Stephen out of the way of other people. Hosuh then stops for a moment off to the side of a wall, "This is disorienting, I like the smaller arcade better. Besides, they have the tokens instead of cards," Stephen takes a second to look at all the games around them, "Me too, but this arcade has laser tag," Hosuh gasps audibly, "There's laser tag?!" Stephen laughs audibly and spots a game he's actually interested in, "Yeah, we can do that later though, when we're with Dan and Jay," Stephen flips his hand over and grabs onto Hosuh's wrist, making Hosuh lose the grip he had. Stephen then takes him over to the arcade game he saw: Two unoccupied skee ball machines. Stephen is a god at arcade games he can physically control, his balloon dart skills just supports this fact.

Looking to Hosuh, he notices the confidence in his smile, "Alright, it's a competition," Hosuh continues to scan the card on both the machines, and standing in front of the left one. "A competition? You sure?" Stephen picks up a skee ball from the right machine, keeping his eyes on the game in front of him, he glances over to see Hosuh also grab a skee ball, "I'm sure," With that, Stephen has no hesitation to start rapidly rolling the skee balls up the middle of the ramp, Hosuh is doing the same, but he reaches over and takes one of Stephen's skee balls, catching him off guard. Stephen goes to pull it out of his hands, but the smug silver-haired rolled the skee ball up the ramp before he could try, and goes right back to finishing rolling the last skee ball he had up the ramp. Stephen glances at his own score, which was 1100. Hosuh's score was 1115. Stephen is livid.

"Guess I win, I'm the game master now," Hosuh says, the smug look on his face matching his tone. "This means war, Hosuh," Stephen crosses his arms as Hosuh turns to look at him, his wide smile softening, eye-smile prominent as he enthusiastically says, "Okay," Stephen lets Hosuh grab onto his wrist and pull him around the arcade, Hosuh's attention landing on the two friends that abandoned them playing air hockey. "We have to play after them," Hosuh brought them closer, and by the looks of it, Jay was winning by a couple points. Dan was quick to get distracted, "Hi guys, what have you played so far?" Jay scored another point when Dan wasn't paying attention, Dan reaching down to grab and place the puck back on the table. "We've only played skee ball," Dan squeaked out a 'Really?' as he tried his hardest to focus on both things at once. Once Dan had lost they quickly left them alone again, leaving the air hockey table to them. Which they take advantage of. Which Stephen wins at.

They play a lot of games, retro games, shooter games that weren't in those big boxes, even an arcade version of Mario Kart. They counted up what scores they got to see who wins, and just when Stephen thought he was winning, Hosuh caught up with him. They ended up tied four to four, and Jay and Dan had found them to tell them that the next round of laser tag would be in ten minutes. They all shared the amount of tickets they had, which Stephen completely forgot existed, and went to the gift shop just in case they could get something. They were all drawn in by the Pokémon merchandise that they just didn't have enough tickets to get, everything seemed to be completely out of their ticket-range. But Hosuh did get one of the mini prizes, which was one of those fluffy worm things. He got a royal purple one, which was a very vibrant purple for a fuzzy...thing. He liked dragging it around on the string like a leash, even though Dan said "Who knows what germs are on the floor, stop it," he pulled it around anyway.

They go on to a building connected to the arcade, where the four of them are ushered to put on those vests. Luckily the four of them are doing this round on their lonesome, which was surprising. Stephen and Hosuh agreed for this to be the deathmatch and chose different teams, Hosuh and Jay on team blue while Stephen and Dan were on team red. Wearing the vest now makes him feel like he was going into that one Spy Kids movie that had similar L.E.D. things on their chests. Stephen and Dan are escorted to one side of the ultraviolet lit abyss, and Stephen cannot wait to demolish Hosuh and Jay. Especially Hosuh. Making Jay look like a fool would be great, too. But Stephen is determined on winning this just to shove it in Hosuh's face for the rest of the night, even if he has to play dirty. No, _because_ has to play dirty. Get revenge. Stephen brain goes at a thousand miles an hour when the game starts, quickly moving in and hiding on a wall, pressing his back to it and waiting for Hosuh to pass by. Focusing on only one side rather than Dan's yelling from Jay's offensive maneuvers.

The second Stephen sees Hosuh's shoe creeping forward, he strikes.

"Bah, what!" Stephen had disarmed Hosuh the second he had him pinned on the wall, one hand pressing on his shoulder while the other holds the laser gun that he shoots at the vest. "You're no fair!" Hosuh tries to wiggle away, but Stephen moves his hand to above the vest Hosuh donned, getting an even pressure on him, effectively keeping him in place, "This is for taking my skee ball!" Hosuh laughs at him and tries to push him away, which Stephen lets him push him, making Hosuh lose balance at the shift of weight. Stephen tackles him to the ground, trying his best to support the back of Hosuh's head before he falls. When they connect with the ground, Stephen lifts his legs so he's more settled on his knees instead of laying on the man under him, using the rest of his body to keep Hosuh from scooting away. He puts his hand back on Hosuh's shoulder and continues to shoot the vest for points, laughing at their shenanigans.

Hosuh laughs too, but stops after a couple of seconds. Hosuh smiles at him, and he can't tell if his face is red because of laughing or because of something else. Hosuh's hand had come up to play with the earring again, but right after moves to cup his jaw, his fingers resting on his neck and his thumb making itself at home on Stephen's cheek as it pets his skin.

Stephen is going to fucking combust.

His mind goes blank as his face burns up, and especially considering the kind of position they're in, it's definitely... Something. Interesting. Intriguing. Embarrassing, mostly. Stephen feels lured in by the soft touch, as if it was pulling him closer, when really he was leaning in on his accord—

"Stephen, help, I'm being assaulted! Oh, bad timing?" Stephen wants to die. He has never wished for death so much, so fast. All it took was Daniel at this second at this minute on this day while Hosuh and Stephen are in a very _interesting_ situation for him to want to wipe his brain clean. Stephen scrambles off Hosuh out of embarrassment as Daniel laughs loudly from where he stood, but them quickly running away when Jay fired at him again. This is going to haunt Stephen forever. Stephen is going to get a serious talking to, from Daniel and from his own damn self. Before he knows it, Hosuh had already gotten his laser gun from off the ground and aimed at Stephen, "A-Are you done getting revenge now?" He tries to say confidently, but how he fumbled over his words ruined that. Stephen gets off the ground and tries not to worry about how much his knees hurt from the ground, "Nah," With that he fires at Hosuh, y'know, without being in an interesting position this time.

The game finishes a minute or two after, and thanks to Stephen's revenge method, team red had won with 26 points. Dan laughs and brags about the accomplishment to Jay's face, while Stephen remembers what Hosuh said earlier and mocks him, "Guess I win, I'm the game master now," Hosuh just lightly laughs and avoids his eyes, "It was _one_ skee ball, you... You pinned me to get a lot more points that I would have with _one_ skee ball. There's a big difference," Stephen snorts when he tried to find the word, mirroring his crossed arms, "Yeah, a difference that worked in my favor," Hosuh turns to face him and slaps his arm, "At what cost?!" Stephen giggles and remembers what he's talking about, but keeps his composure. Stephen gets a thought for something funny he could say, and before he can stop himself the words were already said. "A big cost, unless you're willing to split the bill," He laughed the whole way through saying it, embarrassedly blushing at the undertones of the statement.

Hosuh doesn't say anything and instead walks past him, going back to the arcade. Dan notices this and immediately says, "What the hell did I witness?" Jay is surprised at his outburst, so he probably didn't see anything. Stephen has to be quick to deflect Dan's words, "I haven't quite processed it yet myself, I'd need like ten minutes," Dan is quick to bring the three of them back to the arcade, saying "Go process it, then we'll talk," leaving Stephen with only his thoughts to deal with, so Stephen takes his time with them.

  
———————————————

  
Hosuh's heart has never beat so fast in his entire life. And he has done many Pacertests. He has no idea what he was even thinking when he decided to do _that_, to touch his face like _that_, none of what Stephen did was meant to be romantic at all! But Hosuh just went and interpreted it weird! He takes some deep breaths. He is in fear to look Stephen in the eyes after that. It doesn't help his brain that Stephen _clearly_ leaned in, and it makes it even worse that Dan saw all of that! Hosuh would definitely drink if he could right now. Not even for the hell of it, just because it's an option to avoid everything that just happened. This settles it for him though, Stephen _definitely_ feels that way about him. That was something that happened, and something that they _could_ talk about, but he has no idea how to bring it up easy. Like what's he supposed to say, "So, you wanna talk about how you nearly decided to just kiss me back there?" or, alternatively, "We're kinda gay, wanna kiss?" but he could never even try to say that.

His hair is messed up from the friction that was on it, so he takes the hair tie out, shaking his hair before putting it into a ponytail. It's not like he could re-do it, he needed Dan's help for one of the braids. Speaking of, why did Dan react so calmly? He's clearly noticed some things before this, maybe he was so shocked he appeared unphased? That's a thing, right? Nevermind it, we should be focusing on the Stephen situation a lot more than that, right, brain? Right. Wow, I want to kiss him. Stop! Get back on track! His smile was just so cute, you know, if you forget the fact that he pinned me to the ground. Which was really hot. Nope, no more of those thoughts, I'm not having it! Also that earring, what drove him to even decide to pierce his ear? It suits him really well, but what the hell? Hosuh is never going to fully understand his very purple crush. Right, speaking of purple, Hosuh pulls out his purple worm on a string. He's a cute little fella. He's getting off track again, but maybe, just a maybe, He should name him Stephen.

  
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

  
You created a groupchat with naruto and green rat.

8:23PM

**Me**  
JDBSDJGIDE

**green rat**  
why hello?!!!!!! 🙂

**naruto**  
Calm. :v

**Me**  
I'm  
G  
AY?!  
?  
!?  
!! Bdbx

**naruto**  
Jesus christ

**green rat**  
what else is new, Stephen. Do tell

**Me**  
FUcik  
YOU

**green rat**  
😊 💕💞💖

**Me**  
Okay everyone shut up  
Shut up  
Shut. Up  
The both of you

**naruto**  
No one was talking... :v

**Me**  
SHUT UP  
I CAN EXPLAIN EVERYTHING  
I AM NOT THE ONLY ONE AT FAULT HERE

**green rat**  
GO ON 😊

**Me**  
HSGUT UP SHUT UP  
Okay so  
I swear I had pure intentions

**naruto**  
No wait, what are we talking about I didn't see shit.

**Me**  
You didn't tell him?

**green rat**  
No spoilers ;P

**Me**  
So I might have not realized I was making a move on Hosuh by pinning him to, not only the ground which Dan saw, but also the wall

**naruto**  
What the FUCK?

**Me**  
I KNOW  
BUT I DIDN'T MEAN FOR IT TO BE LIKE HOW YOU THINK IT'S SOUNDING

**green rat**  
what a charmer Pin him to the ceiling next why dont you

**Me**  
Shut up

**green rat**  
HOSUH WAS COMING ONTO YOU I THINK PINNING HIM TO SURFACES WORKS

**Me**  
SHUT UP  
My intentions were pure, I just wanted to get points because he took one of my skee balls and won against me.  
Anyways

**naruto**  
So you pinned him to the ground to get points.

**Me**  
YES, BUT YOU'RE MAKING IT SOUND SO MUCH MORE...!!!!!

**green rat**  
Continue ur sentence

**Me**  
Fuck you  
Anyways  
It was fine until Hosuh touched my face in a really endearing??? Way.

**green rat**  
WE TOLD YOU  
WE TOLD YOU SO  
WE TOLD YOU HE WAS COMING ONTO YOU

**Me**  
SHUT THE FUCK UP  
My brain went dead when he did that

**green rat**  
YOU WERE GONNA KISS HIM  
you should be glad i didn't let you two kiss in a dirty germ infested laser tag maze

**Me**  
SHUT UPPPPPP  
I'm so embarrassed

**green rat**  
Well we're gonna have to go soon so get it together asap  
That entire situation is so... like im in awe  
You pinned him to the ground and thought that there was nothing wrong with that LOL

**naruto**  
Btw I'm getting all of us worm on a string friends.

**green rat**  
Yeah what color u want

**Me**  
Oh yeah let's just act like I didn't almost kiss Hosuh

**green rat**  
Ok fuck, fine, a celebration worm just say a color

**Me**  
WOAH

**naruto**  
Oh my god

**green rat**  
UNDKJTFNG OOPS I MEAN *FRICK

**Me**  
I'm sending that to Hosuh

**green rat**  
SAY A COLOR

**Me**  
RED OR BLUE

**green rat**  
THANK YOU

**naruto**  
Oh yeah let's just act like you didn't almost kiss Hosuh and that the first thing you do afterwards is send him a picture of Dan saying fuck.

**Me**  
Sh

**naruto**  
Ut up?

**Me**  
Just sh

  
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

  
Hosuh played a couple more arcade games, unsure whether or not he wants or does not want to delve into his thoughts. He's officially announced Stephen the Worm his best friend, and he's trying his best to resist approaching the claw machine. He really wants to get Stephworm a friend, though. Of course Hallo is back home and they'll be friends, but there's cute little Sanrio plushies that he really wants. There's a couple of Hello Kitty's and Gudetama's... The fan favorites. But there's a Cinnamoroll one he's really drawn to. Before he can debate testing his luck, his phone vibrates.

  
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

  
**Stephen**  
DAN SAID FUCK  
_[Open image attachment]_

**Me**  
Wow  
That's great but wanna help me get a plushie??

**Stephen**  
Is it a crane game?

**Me**  
...Yes

**Stephen**  
I'll TRY.

**Me**  
Thank you!!!!!

  
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

  
Hosuh has to give it to himself, actually asking Stephen casually to help him get a plushie like they didn't nearly kiss fifteen minutes ago is unthinkable. Maybe it's the fact that he loves him that much, that he'd suffer through that just to get more attention. Ah, so shameless. Hosuh approaches the machine, looking at all the cast of friends in there, the Cinnamoroll one is on it's bottom, maybe the ears would be a good place to grab them? Would the oblong-ness of it make it easier or harder to grab? Hosuh decides to give it a test go, scanning the card and moving the claw to above Cinnamoroll, peeking around the machine from different angles to make sure it's centered. Hitting the button, he hopes he doesn't mess up the plushie's positioning too bad. The claw had a good grip, but the plushie slipped out and landed diagonally. Maybe this is better? He was gonna go again when a voice next to him makes him jump, "Hold on, leave it to the game master," More like the gay master, but okay, Stephen. Wow that was a good one, he should write that down.

He scans the card again and moves to the side so the mohawked can take over where Hosuh left off. Stephen must've been around long enough to see that he wanted Cinnamoroll, since he moved the claw above it, also maneuvering around the box to see if it lines up. He presses the button and the plushie slipped out of the grip when it was just nearly over the plastic rim that kept it from being Hosuh's loving arms. Cinnamoroll bounced away and landed on it's head, Stephen groans in irritation "This is why we don't trust crane games!" Hosuh just responds in a whining voice "But they're so cute, look at them all! They're all friends that I could have, but I want him in particular!" Stephen just yanks the card out of his hands and scans it, trying again to get Cinnamoroll for him. "You don't want any other character? Not Hello Kitty V2, not frog, not spiky penguin-—?" Stephen presses the button after confirming the angle. "They have names you know!" Hosuh stares Stephen down, even as he turns to defend himself, "Well sor-_ry_, I don't know Hello Kitty characters, Hosuh!"

"They're not 'Hello Kitty characters', they're Sanrio—" There's a thunk, and it's not a failure-sounding thunk. Hosuh squats and reaches over to pull out the adorable white puppy out of the compartment, and squeezes them while excitedly squealing, "Oh my god, it's my baby! He's so cute!" Stephen laughs lightly, "Well, what's this one named then?" Hosuh doesn't hesitate to dork out over Sanrio, "Well, his name is Cinnamoroll, but maybe I should give him a new name? Maybe like Cream, or Sugar? No, too predictable, what is that in..." He mumbles the last part as he pauses to do the translation in his head, "Seoltang! That's his name," Stephen tilts his head a little at the name, "Sultan?" Hosuh groans at his misinterpretation, and accentuates the vowels of the name this time "No, it's Seol, Tang! It means sugar," "Oh, Seoltang," Stephen mumbles the name out now that he gets it and pets Seoltang.

Hosuh spots his friends coming up to them with fuzzy worms in their hands, "Stephen, there wasn't any that was a good red, so I got you a blue one!" Daniel hands Stephen a blue worm on a string and he holds it in his palm, petting it with a finger. Daniel then gasps, "Oh who's this cutiepie?!" pointing excitedly at Seoltang and petting it for a second, "Stephen won me a friend," Daniel's tone changes quickly as he looks at Stephen, "Oh, is that true?" Stephen looks at him and nervously laughs, "Don't look at me like that! I'm the game master is all, he asked for my assistance," Dan just gives Stephen a look and says "Okay, well let's get out of here, we have our signature worms, mine's pink! He's very cute," Daniel shows off his worm like it's his child at a PTA meetings and he's ready to brag about him to the parents. Jay pulls a yellow worm on a string out of his pocket and slams it into Dan's pink one, much to Dan's distress.

They all make it to the car after Dan gave a lecture on how to care for a worm friend, and Hosuh is just happy that he'll soon be in the comfort of his home, where he can talk in peace to his plushie friends.

  
———————————————

  
Once they were all home, Hosuh rushed to commence a meeting with his plushies, placing Seoltang to the right of his desk and Stephen the worm right next to Hallo on the left side of the desk. He boots his laptop up, ready to draw all his feelings from today out. He tries to think of something to draw, so he looks over to Seoltang and decides to draw him. the line art is very cute, but he drew very small, so he should really fill up the empty space. He turns off that layer and goes to a different layer, drawing up something that'll fit next to Seoltang. At least when given the right clothing and the right colors. Once it's done he fixes some messy lines, brings the Seoltang layer back, and looks over it on the computer screen. Stephen in a fluffy coat fits really well next to him. He colors it in pastel, does some shading because he likes it that much, and decides it's too good to leave on his desktop. So he goes to their Discord server.

  
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

hosuh mosuh - Today at 10:43PM  
[Open image attachment]  
They're friends!

ivuvuvuvu - Today at 10:43PM  
omg  
so cute!!! ^^

pausans - Today at 10:44PM  
WAAAA CUTE!!!!!!!!  
Is that Cinnamoroll?! You should draw Jay with the black bird guy, they look a lot alike hehe  
@Stephen  
@Stephen  
@Stephen

hosuh mosuh - Today at 10:45PM  
Oh that just gave me a lot of art ideas lol

Stephen - Today at 10:46PM  
Who dares ping me?  
Oh wait that's adorable! See Hosuh, I knew you can draw cute stuff, you just choose not to.

hosuh mosuh - Today at 10:46PM  
>:T

ann - Today at 10:47PM  
dibs on being hello kitty  
WAIT NO i want to be the one with the pink bunny hood  
how do i pick between the 2 best ones NotLikeThis

daniel planiel - Today at 10:47PM  
HOSUH THAT'S SO CUTE!!!!!!!

Stephen - Today at 10:47PM  
Hosuh only needs my compliments because I'm the best

slime jay - Today at 10:48PM  
🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈

pausans - Today at 10:48PM  
HAHAHAHAHAHAH

daniel planiel - Today at 10:48PM  
JAY

ann - Today at 10:48PM  
😶

Bella ⏳ - Today at 10:48PM  
What the hell happened here

Stephen - Today at 10:48PM  
Jay I'm going to end you

ann - Today at 10:49PM  
im assuming that was all he could say since we r playin league

Bella ⏳ - Today at 10:49PM  
Aww cute art Hosuh!!!

Stephen - Today at 10:50PM  
Ew, league.

daniel planiel - Today at 10:50PM  
We're not doing this bit again Stephen!!!

  
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

  
Hosuh decides to stop paying attention there, he's a bit exhausted from all the activities today so he shuts everything down, and cozies up in bed.

Hosuh is glad that his feelings don't keep him up at night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i am not sorry about the laser tag incident. be sure to yell your emotions at me in the comments for this chapter  
anyway have fun imagining a soft pastel stephen with cinnamoroll because i sure did  
also the G AY?! ? !? !! Bdbx was inspired by a convo with strawberryai go read his danplan fics thanks lmao


	13. Day 30

Stephen's feelings kept him up at night.

He'd make himself comfy in bed, think about what happened that day, get restless, and then repeat. He forgets whether or not he'd slept when he did wake up. He really needs to stop freaking out so much so he can actually sleep. Now that it's morning and he doesn't need to sleep, he thinks more on all the events that transpired at the arcade. During the thought bomb he was having last night he thought a lot about the laser tag incident. Like a lot. Especially Hosuh touching his face, he's really hooked on that thought. Right, he was definitely going to kiss Hosuh, and there's no way Hosuh didn't notice that. He feels like a fool. A clown. How is he gonna look Hosuh in the eyes after this? Who is he kidding, he'll forget all about this the second Hosuh speaks to him. He finds the want to decide to get up and get ready for classes, so he does.

  
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Ann🐻 created a groupchat with Dan🐹 and yourself.

9:23AM

**Ann**🐻  
hey hooosuh hey daaaniel

**Dan**🐹  
Ann......what is this  
What are you up to?

**Ann**🐻  
i would like to know about what the FUCK happened for jay to have sent pride flags in the discord

**Dan**🐹  
i

**Me**  
???  
Okay but why is Dan here

**Ann**🐻  
oh so u only talk 2 me you don't talk behind my back to dan

**Me**  
No???

**Ann**🐻  
i wouldve thought u did considering DAN KNOWS THINGS thank u for valuing my friendship hosuh

**Dan**🐹  
THINGS as in I am a clear observer of the gay going on

**Me**  
Dan I am so sorry on behalf of Ann and I am so sorry you have to know

**Dan**🐹  
Don't worry about it man!!  
So moving on, there was an INCIDENT.

**Me**  
Yeah, that's a word to describe it

**Dan**🐹  
And I had told Jay because Jay didn't see what this INCIDENT was.

**Me**  
WHY DOES EVERYONE KNOW?

**Dan**🐹  
Not everyone! I personally barely know the context! It's not like the entire Discord is here!

**Ann**🐻  
do u WANT me to bring them here

**Dan**🐹  
NO

**Me**  
NO

**Ann**🐻  
LOL i was kidding!!!! a funny joke, guys!!!! 😜😜😜🤣🤣🤣🤪🤪🤪

**Dan**🐹  
It better be 🔪

**Ann**🐻  
😅  
anyway what was this INCIDENT

**Me**  
It was embarrassing that's what

**Dan**🐹  
Stephen just pinning Hosuh to the ground nothing much really.

**Ann**🐻  
HUH?????? i need 2 have a chat w/ him

**Me**  
IT'S NOT WHAT IT SOUNDS LIKE

**Dan**🐹  
Also Hosuh was definitely tryna kiss

**Me**  
I wasn't thinking!!! He's just really hot!!!  
And his laugh was really cute!!!

**Dan**🐹  
Excuses! Of which I will accept

**Ann**🐻  
wow  
y'all gay

**Dan**🐹  
Unlike Hosuh and Stephen me and Jay didn't have awkward gay interactions that day so it's not a y'all at all

**Me**  
Didn't you message me just to do a short rant on Jay smooching his worm friend?

**Dan**🐹  
That wasn't an interaction between me and him so it doesn't count and you can shut up

**Ann**🐻  
BHJKJSNMFHD OMEGALUL??????????  
DANIEL?????

**Me**  
Something about "I want to be that worm"?

**Ann**🐻  
IM GOING FERAL RN  
THIS IS SOMETHING I DIDNT EXPECT

**Dan**🐹  
I'M LEAVING THIS SITUATION hosuh come eat

Dan🐹 left the groupchat.

**Ann**🐻  
tell me BOTH the teas in excruciating detail when u have time

**Me**  
Okay, but with hesitation, chief.

  
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

  
Chaotic text messages aside, Hosuh threw on a warm jacket to combat the cold that he'd soon be faced with and tied his silver hair into a ponytail, purposefully leaving the locks that framed his face down. He powerwalked downstairs and was hit with the smell of breakfast before he was even off the stairs. Walking into the kitchen, he sees Stephen already eating and Daniel cleaning the utensils he was just using. Of course Hosuh decides to sit next to Stephen once he gets his food. Hosuh doesn't mean to sound sing-songy when he announces his presence with "Hello," but it comes out like that anyway. Stephen just hums a response while Daniel snaps out of his cleaning spell to turn to him, "Hi! I still can't believe we all have classes on this day,"

Stephen laughs to himself and swallows what he was eating to say, in some sort of wacky accent, "Going to school with my mom," Daniel laughs loudly "My mom is a student at my school?! Not clickbait, I'm 7," Stephen laughs again before going back to eating and it makes Hosuh's heart flitter with happiness. Hosuh doesn't know how he gets more and more of an endorphin boost from everything Stephen does. Just being around him gets his heart beating fast. It's an oddly comforting feeling.

Despite that, Hosuh's body doesn't feel awake, so without thinking he swallows his food to blurt out, "I want coffee," looking up to see Daniel finally sat down at the table with his own food, eating quickly. The person to his right is done eating, leaning back in his chair as he looks to him, "I don't," Daniel pauses eating to say "We don't even have time to get coffee," and Hosuh just sighs as he finishes eating the last of the food on his plate. "I want coffee when classes end, then," He sees Daniel roll his eyes at his persistence, stacking the now empty plates and silverware on top of each other, "I have work to get to after school, if you want coffee, you'll just have to walk. If you decide that coffee isn't worth it, I'll be fine with taking you home,"

Hosuh doesn't even give himself time to react when he says, "Stephen, we're getting coffee after classes," Daniel wheezes at the delivery of his sentence as Stephen is also in mild shock. Hosuh flushes at what his sentence was suggesting. Stephen snaps out of it to say, "I don't like coffee!" Hosuh stands and straightens his jacket out, trying to play off the redness on his face, "Hot chocolate? They should have it since it's colder," Stephen sputters, leading into his answer sounding unsure, "Okay? Only because I don't want to be in a car alone with Daniel, he could kill me if I don't kill him first," Daniel simply laughs.

They rush themselves out the door to get to university, and Hosuh can't seem to stop thinking that he pretty much just asked Stephen on a coffee date.

  
———————————————

  
Stephen is trying to stay awake during the lecture, balancing his head in his hand, taking notes like a good student does... But also spacing out to think about Hosuh. Did Hosuh really ask him to get coffee with him? He's gonna find out later when his brain wants to function, but right now he can't seem to stay awake. His brain seems to fog up as his eyes slip shut for maybe the fiftieth time.

Stephen finds himself sitting at a creek, he looks up to see the woods around him, but it's so bright that it's in no way intimidating or worrying. He feels at ease. He looks around him and nearly jumps out of his skin when he sees Hosuh to his left, in a white t-shirt much too big for him and some denim jeans. Thinking a second longer on it, doesn't Stephen have that exact same t-shirt? Whatever, Hosuh seemed to be plucking flowers that kept growing around him and weaving the stems of the flowers together. Stephen could easily point out the white and lavender colored roses, but the other flower he had wove into it was something he couldn't seem to put his finger on. The flower seemed like a pink rose, but had a more rounder and symmetrical shape. Before going onto debating over the flower names he knows, a soft familiar voice interrupts him, "They're camellias," Hosuh says simply, continuing to pick out flowers to weave into whatever he was creating.

Hpsuh gasps when he turned to look for another flower and picked out a bundle of deep purple flowers that didn't look like it went with what he was making at all. "You can have these ones," Stephen takes the flowers from Hosuh's hands and stares a little confusedly at them. "They're violets. It reminded me of you," Hosuh turns back to the endless flower supply and Stephen looks down to the flowers, lightly touching the petals. The second he looks back up Hosuh's creation is finished, and Stephen realizes that he was making a flower crown. Hosuh puts the flower crown on his head, carefully fitting it on without ruining it. Hosuh reaches to his left and picks up another flower crown that Stephen didn't see, and hands it to him.

The flower crown seemed to have roses of more than one color, as in, one kind of rose was yellow with a creamy color on the tips, and another was white but a salmon sort of color on the tips. The wildly colored roses were paired with an interesting bunch of flowers that appeared like a flower hybrid. The top half of the flower was white with rounder petals, but the bottom kind of resembled a tiger lily. Like the roses, they also came in plenty colors. Stephen traces his fingers over the interesting flowers when Hosuh speaks up, "They're called columbines, now put it on already!" Stephen complies and gently sets it on his head, trying not to ruin it. He shifts to face Hosuh, who's smiling while looking at him, his eyes mirroring it, "You look really cute," Stephen is taken aback and his face warms up, "Wh... I could destroy this right now!" He points to the flower crown as Hosuh laughs, waving his hands to convince him not to, "No, please don't,"

Hosuh scoots closer to him and places his hands on Stephen's face, rubbing over his cheekbones with his thumbs. Stephen is sure he just blushed deeper at the action. Hosuh pulls Stephen closer until their foreheads connect, the breath on his face feeling all too real. Stephen will be so pissed if he wakes up now.

Realizing that it's a dream woke him up, waking with a jump. He sits up straight and looks at the time on his phone. He slept for a good twenty minutes. If only it were just a _bit_ longer. He missed a lot of the lecture so he tries to write down what he can and waits for class to end.

  
———————————————

  
All of Stephen's classes finally end so when he meets up with Hosuh it'll be the moment of truth: Did he really ask him to get coffee with him? Stephen powerwalks outside and searches for Hosuh when someone grabs his arm. Whipping his head over, it's Hosuh. "You scared me, don't do that," Hosuh giggles as he pulls Stephen along, "It's not a long walk and I want coffee now. I need sustenance," Stephen laughs at Hosuh's word choices. It's cold out, but Stephen fights through it, hugging his body with the one arm he has free as Hosuh pulls him down the sidewalk. Stephen then remembers about Daniel, whom Stephen assumes knows the two of them aren't going to the car anytime soon. What about the schoolwork he has to do? Oh, duh, that can be done when he's there. Is he getting a little too anxious over nothing? Probably. It's just the connotation of how Hosuh worded this venture that's making him antsy. Is this like a date? Does Hosuh think it's like a date? Are they on a date?

A bells chime interrupts his thoughts, realizing they're walking into a coffeehouse. The smell of coffee hits his face and he wrinkles his nose at the strong smell. Hosuh pauses for a second before handing Stephen his school bag, "I'm confident, go find a place for us to sit," Hosuh walks up to the cashier and Stephen is surprised at it, but disregards it to bring their stuff over to an empty booth in the back of the coffeehouse. Stephen places Hosuh's bag on one side of the booth and sits in the other booth with his own bag. He bounces his leg out of an unshakable feeling of anxiousness as he continuously glances over to Hosuh, deciding to just take out his laptop to distract himself. The wifi is probably gonna be shit, but maybe he'll be able to play some DOTA? He doubts it.

When he boots up his laptop Hosuh came over to sat down in the empty, not counting his bag, booth. Hosuh puts his weight on the table, resting his head on his arms, "I'm not talking to anyone ever again," Stephen laughs lightly "Not even your lovable, amazing, attractive, irreplaceable bestfriend Stephen?" Hosuh chuckles quietly, "I think I can make some exceptions," That response was enough to get Stephen's heart beating a little faster. Hosuh sits himself back up to take his laptop and drawing tablet out right when his name is called by the cashier. He sighs and gets up to get the warm beverages from the cashier, and Stephen swears he tried his best to keep his eyes off him. Hosuh returns with the two drinks in to-go cups and says, "Now the question is, which one is the hot chocolate?"

Stephen groans but thinks about which of the two cups he should go with, "Are you really making me play a guessing game right now?" Hosuh laughs and nods, "I don't know which is which either, choose one," Stephen rolls his eyes and picks up the nearest cup, forgetting to smell it before taking a sip. Ew. Gross. Coffee. Stephen tries to scrape the taste off his tongue with his teeth. He hands it over to Hosuh as he laughs at his reaction, and Hosuh is happy to take it from him. Stephen tries to wash out the taste by drinking the hot chocolate this time. It's so much more enjoyable than what the hell kind of coffee he just drank. Stephen puts it down, realizing he actually does have work to do. He unconsciously glances to Hosuh, who was starting up both the devices he had on the table, holding the coffee cup to his lips but not drinking it. Ah. Stephen's own lips were there. He looks to his computer quickly to avoid whatever overthinking he was about to experience.

The coffeehouse visit goes without any bumps, and they stay for quite a while. By the time they're both bored the sky had already gotten dark, at 6PM nonetheless. To top it all off, it had begun snowing however long ago. The two of them packed up their stuff, threw out their cups in the trash like good people do, and head out into the snow. "On the bright side, the snow is pretty," Hosuh says, looking up at the flakes falling as they walk. "Look down, you're gonna run into something, or get snow in your eye," Hosuh grumbles lightly and looks straight ahead. Then he grabs onto Stephen's arm and rubs his face into the fabric. Stephen thought he'd be used to this after however many times, but he's not. Hosuh mumbles out his words into the sleeve of Stephen's jacket "Why is it so cold?" Stephen sighs as his body temperature warms up from Hosuh's actions, "It's snowing and we live in Canada, Hosuh,"

Hosuh hums in response, moving his head away to shake off the snow that landed in his hair. He rests his head back on his arm but Stephen feels his head move to look up, and then feels a hand getting the snow off his hair carefully. It's a sweet gesture, and that's why Stephen can only hope the cold is covering for him the warmer he gets. "You're embarrassing," the words come out on instinct as a quip but now he's just embarrassed himself. "So I'm embarrassing you?" Stephen can feel Hosuh's probably smug smile through his sleeve. Stephen wonders for a second how red someone can get if they're at maximum blush in the cold. "Exactly. You're embarrassing me," Hosuh giggles and moves a hand down to hold his hand, "Your hand is so warm," Stephen feels like he's just embarrassing himself at this point. He tries to deflect him with words, speaking in an annoyed tone, "Stop," But he doesn't do anything to stop him.

Hosuh does pull away completely though, and Stephen turns his head to see Hosuh picking snow off the ground and forcing it into Stephen's hand. It's _very_ cold. "Then stop having warm hands!" Stephen laughs, "No, stop, it's cold!" Hosuh throws the snow to the ground and clings to him again, "See, that's what I thought," Stephen is relieved that the cold that was practically biting his hand was gone, and just when Stephen thought Hosuh was done talking, "You should be thankful that I'm so good at embarrassing you, you'd be freezing if I weren't," And Stephen can't tell if his heart sank or if his stomach got butterflies when Hosuh clearly referenced his flustered behavior. His brain freezes for a second as he just gets warmer from the embarrassment. Stephen really wants to get home.

The walk was mostly silence after that. They made it home, and by that time it was fully dark out. The second they step inside they're relieved that it's not cold anymore. Jay peeks over his place on the couch, "Hoho, Stephen, where were you two?" Hosuh moves to the kitchen as he responds, "Coffee," Stephen laughs slightly at the one word response, "Hosuh made an impulsive choice to get coffee and dragged my _poor_ _soul_ with," Jay turns back to the television with a smirk, "Ah, okay," he says with a very certain tone to his voice that says 'Yeah, okay, so a coffee date?' and Stephen would slap him if he weren't cold and tired. Stephen goes to sit on the couch with Jay, trying to warm up in the corner of the couch. Stephen decides to make a dumb decision to talk to Dan instead of typing notes this time. He snorts at the new name he set for Daniel.

  
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6:46PM

**Me**  
I am fucking exhausted.  
Daniel.  
I'm so tired and gay?

**rat clown bastard**  
Oh boy what happened

**Me**  
I come to you pre-procession of the day  
Oh I had a cute dream though.

**rat clown bastard**  
Hold that thought  
Switch over to the gc

**Me**  
Ugh FINE.

  
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6:50PM

**rat clown bastard**  
Go on

**Me**  
You're making me do so much work...

**piss-colored bastard**  
owo? What's this? :v

**Me**  
Anyway so my dream was really cute, Hosuh had a flower crown.

**rat clown bastard**  
Wow how soft and vague of a dream you had

**Me**  
Die.  
That's all that mattered to me in the dream it was really cute

**rat clown bastard**  
Okay it's great that 'really cute' is the only descriptive word in your vocabulary right now but how about REAL LIFE

**Me**  
No need to be a bitch but fine. I'll humor you  
Nothing new Hosuh grabbed onto my arm again but he did point out my gay behavior? I think that's what he was implying?

**rat clown bastard**  
FINALLY YOU'RE GETTING SOMEWHERE  
When are you just gonna date him already I'm impatient

**piss-colored bastard**  
Give him a break, he's a recent gay. He needs time.

**Me**  
Thank you?

**piss-colored bastard**  
You are welcome. I'm a little slow with relationships also. :v

**Me**  
Huh maybe I'll change your name in my contacts back to naruto because of this

**piss-colored bastard**  
......What is it right now?

**Me**  
piss-colored bastard

**piss-colored bastard**  
Wow.  
After everything we've been through...

**Me**  
Would you rather it be yellow highlighter bastard?

**piss-colored bastard**  
Yes :v

**Me**  
Consider it done.

**rat clown bastard**  
AWWW You're bonding!!!!!! 💖💞❤️💕💓

piss-colored bastard left the groupchat.

**rat clown bastard**  
LOL i'll invite him back later :p

  
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When Hosuh is done eating dinner he goes to set up his workspace, turning on his laptop and drawing tablet at once. He reorganizes his plushies while he waits. He sets up his drawing program and brings up what he was working on at the coffeehouse. Which was a bunch of doodles of Stephen. Is Hosuh in too deep? Probably. He finishes up anything he missed and downloads the file onto his computer, moving on to actually work on homework. It's boring when he'd much rather be drawing, plus the boredom is making his mind slip away to daydream. His daydreaming is interrupted when his phone vibrates. He turns it on and sees a message from Daniel.

  
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9:47PM  
  


  
**Dan**🐹  
Concept coming at you hard you'll never see it coming  
The next time we go somewhere destroy Stephen with uhhh I don't know wearing a flower in your hair??? Flower hair clips???

**Me**  
Daniel, where is this coming from? '>_>

**Dan**🐹  
JUST TRUST ME HOSUH

**Me**  
Okay???

**Dan**🐹  
Thank you :)

  
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Hosuh assumes Dan knows something interesting if he had to tell him that. It does get Hosuh's imagination going though. He minimizes his school work and opens up his drawing program, sketching up some ideas of what Daniel said. He sketches up a variety of hairstyles and adds flowers to them in some way. He comes to a conclusion on a good idea and plans to go shopping tomorrow for it. Maybe he should ask Dan for advice more. It's nearly 10PM now, huh? He should really focus on homework. He plugs in his earbuds and turns on music to see if it helps.

He eventually does get his work done by midnight, so he gets ready to go to bed and sleep forever. When he gets cozy under the covers he wonders if he said too much today. He doesn't want to make Stephen feel like they need to talk about what happened at laser tag, and he hopes he's not too overbearing on him. If Stephen's confrontation from earlier is anything to go off of, he hasn't really pushed any boundaries yet, so it's probably okay right now? Love has normally come easy for Hosuh, so he shouldn't assume Stephen's the same. Heck, he shouldn't assume Stephen loves him at all! Hosuh just has his head in the clouds about the entire situation and he can't seem to float down.

Hosuh goes to sleep hesitantly once his feelings quiet down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i know one of you probably brought up google the second the flower scene came in don't lie  
i've planned out future events the problem is LEADING UP TO THAT so if i do ANOTHER TIME SKIP it's because i need the halloween boys to proceed the story before i run out of ideas for cute scenes :)


	14. Day 36

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ALMOST HALLOWEEN IN THE STORY BABY LET'SSSSSS GO

It was two days before Halloween and Daniel only yesterday thought to tell them of a Halloween party Joe invited everyone to. He said that he swore he already told us, but knowing him, he probably let it slip his mind when he was working. So now with Dan having already planned a costume and Hosuh, Jay and himself having not, they had to do that now or suffer the consequences of Hallow's Eve shopping. The party was of course on Halloween, and it'd be going on from around 7PM to somewhere in the AMs and Stephen really doesn't want to stay that long. Of course he'd go, but as the responsible and soon-to-be only sober adult out of his friends, he wants to keep everyone in check. Instead of Daniel keeping him on a metaphorical leash it's gonna be the other way around. And he dreads it. Hosuh doesn't even like parties, but he said as long as we're there it's okay. I mean, how crowded can this party be?

Since Daniel wasn't tagging along this time, Stephen and Jay were waiting on Hosuh. Which is surprising, Hosuh isn't usually so slow. But when Hosuh comes downstairs Stephen takes a moment to process what was clearly the reason why. Hosuh's hair was in a bit of a higher ponytail rather than the looser ponytails he usually has, and he had these cute little hair clips with a metal flower on each of them, pinning his bangs out of his face. Stephen wonders if Hosuh is_ trying _to give him a heartattack. Jay goes up to Hosuh, about to mess his hair up, "You can see just fine, you're just wearing those clips to look cute," Hosuh slaps Jay's hands away as if it were a cat fight, "I'm not cute, and don't touch my hair! I spent too long on it," Jay just shrugs and heads for the door, jingling Dan's keys around. Dan didn't want to bother taking the car key off his bundle so he just let Jay have all of his keys.

Stephen lagged behind a little but that's when he saw that the hairband holding Hosuh's hair in place also had flowers made of fabric on it. This is very on the nose about flowers. It reminds him of that dream he had. _Wait. _Before he could even think to message Dan, Hosuh turns on his heel to face him, "You're still not saying anything about my hair?" Like the first time Hosuh brought this up, it catches Stephen off guard. Stephen forces out a response while looking at how cute Hosuh looks. "Cute. I-It's cute," Stephen is an idiot. Since the word cute was on his mind he just had to go and _say_ cute when he could've said _anything_ else. On top of all that, he _stuttered!_ He flushes with embarrassment. He looked away, pretending to have his attention on the shelf just a bit away, so Hosuh didn't see his reaction and so he didn't have to see Hosuh's own, no matter how much he wanted to. He waits for Hosuh to say something like "I'm not cute!", but he doesn't say anything.

So Stephen was currently in the car, taking his place in the passenger seat as Jay drives their trio to the mall. Since Daniel wasn't coming, they'd have to pay for their own costumes. Daniel did give them each twenty dollars and told them to play nice, though. Jay never plays nice, so Stephen's a little apprehensive about him having responsibility over them. Dan formally dubbed Jay the one in charge, he pretty much got knighted, and Stephen would be getting no where if he were to argue with him. So that's why Stephen is deciding to joke around with Hosuh for the most part, Jay's too intimidating when Daniel isn't around to get him into their bits. He doesn't have anything against Jay, he's just so serious. Like a strict dad. Having a strict dad when shopping isn't fun, right? Stephen wouldn't know, but he's probably going to.

Stephen contemplated possible costumes he could wear. He doesn't want to be basic and be a vampire or werewolf or something, but then what? Technically he could be anything, he doesn't _have_ to be scary. But is there any fun in that? Maybe he'll figure it out once they're there. They arrived eventually, heading for the costume store in the mall. The store had a large variety of costumes on racks and it was just a bit crowded, so Jay lightly yanked Hosuh and Stephen closer as if they were his kids and about to tell them to stay close and to not leave the playground. Hosuh clung onto Stephen's arm again, "What kind of costume were you guys thinking of doing?" Stephen groaned as his brain struggles to keep up with the costumes they pass by, "No idea, how about you?" Hosuh hummed, eyes looking to all the costumes, not missing a single one.

"I was thinking a vampire. I'd be a good vampire, right?" Hosuh steps infront of them, successfully stopping the two in their tracks and does little claw hands. Jay probably isn't amused. Stephen pretends to not show his amusement. Hosuh scrunches his face at their lack of reaction, and Jay says, "Maybe a dumb one if that's what you're going for," Stephen laughs loudly and watches as Hosuh stifles a laugh as he crosses his arms, trying to look disgruntled while he walks off. Jay interrupts their laughing to say, "Honestly, I think I'm just going to wear my Pikachu onesie as a costume," Stephen chokes on his laugh, "Wearing clothes under it, I hope!" Jay laughs out a "What?!" and Stephen doesn't know if that means Jay was or wasn't planning to wear clothes under it. Suddenly Stephen was being tugged by the wrist, nearly tripping over himself as Hosuh takes him over to an aisle. Hosuh stops to pull one of the costumes off and shows it off to them, "Consider _this_ as my cool vampire costume!"

The costume had an almost peacoat kind of style to it, it was black with a deep blue highlighting the inside, the collar, and cuffs of the sleeves. The matching pants also the same color scheme, the cuffs of the pants were the only part that was blue. Hosuh pipes up again, "Well? What do you guys think?" Stephen turns to see Jay, having forgot he was here for a second. Stephen turns back to stare at the costume and the silver-haired man behind it, "I don't know, it's very vampire-y though," Jay chimes in right after, "Why would you ever ask Stephen for input on anything?" Stephen doesn't look over when he punches Jay in the arm, not intending to actually hurt him but getting an "Ow," out of him anyways. Hosuh gives them dead stares before turning and heading for the accessory part of the store, costume in hand. Stephen lightly laughs as he follows after him, glazing his eyes over the displays of accessories.

His eyes land on black fluffy cottonball earrings and then his costume idea hits him in the face like the concrete did when he slipped on that soccer ball back when he was in school. He holds onto the earrings and looks for anything that could fit the idea he had in mind. Behind him he hears Jay ready to question him, "Looks like you suddenly got an idea," Stephen hushes him with a hand as he keeps pulls his phone out to search for a reference image for what he's working towards, "This is the most creative energy I've had in years, Jay," He quickly grabs onto a couple more accessories, trying to keep them out of Hosuh's view, and mumbles to Jay, "I'm going to pay for these and go hunting to make my idea come to life, don't tell Hosuh what I'm doing," Jay just nods and scoots over so he can move onward with his quest. He hopes to whatever higher power that this idea works out.

  
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When Stephen has everything, having compared everything to each other for maybe the nineteenth time to make sure the colors work and that he wouldn't look like a disaster if he were to wear this, he is overjoyed. Sure, maybe he's deciding to be a little _extra_ as the kids say, but Stephen did try to pick out clothes he would wear more than once so it wouldn't be a complete waste. The accessories and make-up weren't as much of a problem, he impulsively got a lot of things that he's not even sure would work when the time comes, but whatever. He made sure everything was as on character as possible. There is _one_ crucial part of the outfit that he didn't buy, but that's because he has it at home. Hosuh probably wouldn't mind if he borrowed his paints. He hopes he doesn't mind if he took a bit more without asking, though.

With a couple of bags around his arm he goes back to his friends to regroup, walking over to the two who were lingering at the same accessory display, looking at all the charms. Jay in particular was very interested in the Pokémon charms. "What up," Announcing his existence surprised the two a little and Jay looks down to the amount of bags he has with shame. Hosuh however uses his words, "You abandoned us, why do you have so many bags? Tell me your costume!" Stephen slaps Hosuh's hand with his free one when he goes to reach for the bags, and holds the bags protectively to his chest, "It's a surprise, I'm not telling you!" Hosuh turns back to the accessories he picked out with an eyeroll, picking them all up in his hands, "So we can finally get out of here?" Jay takes a second to grab a little Pikachu charm, clutching it in his fist, "Yes, we should go before it gets busier,"

Once Hosuh and Jay had paid for their items they quickly made their way out to the parking lot and back in the car. "Finally, I thought we were gonna be in there forever," Stephen announced once he settled back in the passenger seat, The man behind him laughed, "Oh, says the one that ditched their friends to get stuff for their costume," Stephen turns in his seat to face a smirking Hosuh, "I had a stroke of genius, you guys could've left without me whenever you wanted," Jay groans as he starts the car up, "Don't make me turn this car around!" Stephen whips his head over to the yellow highlighter, "The car is in park, Jay!" "What do you mean? We're not in a park. We are in a park_ing lot_ though," Stephen falls silent for a second before laughing at the dumb joke.

When they make it home Stephen goes to his room to properly lay out his costume while Hosuh is showing his costume to Dan. Stephen takes this opportunity to commence his mini-raid on Hosuh's room. He drops his bags off in his own room before going over to Hosuh's room, trying to be quiet and quick about it. He goes over to Hosuh's desk, assuming he keeps his paints in the drawers, top drawer had pencils, markers, and paper from what he could see out of that mess, middle drawer had various utensils, and the bottom drawer had all the painting supplies he could need. He grabs a average-sized brush and a thick brush first, grabbing pastel paints of pink, purple, yellow, and blue. He also grabs a bottle of white and black paint just in case. He closes the drawer with his arms full, and quickly grabs Cinnamoro— _Seoltang_ off Hosuh's desk. That's gonna be noticeable, so Stephen's gonna have to hide them.

He rushes out of the room and into his own, kicking the door closed behind him. He drops everything on the floor and reaches under his bed to drag out his old skateboard. He hasn't used it since high school, and he wasn't good at controlling it at all. He only brought it with him because why would anyone back home want it? It was a waste of money but now he can get some use out of it. He's gonna have to refurbish his skateboard now if it doesn't dry fast enough or if he messed something up, so he searches up about refurbishing and he realizes it would've been a good idea to have got something to keep the paint from chipping. Good thing he'll only need the skateboard for one day only. It says something about how the colors will be less than ideal if he doesn't start with a white surface so he decides that's what he'll do first. He thinks about what exactly he wants to change and decides that the bottom would look a lot better if he put a little design on it.

Stephen's brain is not artistic enough for this, but he starts with the white paint on the thick brush to paint over the sides and bottom of the skateboard. Then he waits for the paint to dry. Then he'd have to put another coat on. Then he'd have to wait again. Stephen comes to a conclusion that he is much too impulsive. Which reminds Stephen that he has to clean the piercing on his ear, so he gets up to exit his room. He turns back for a second though to pick up Seoltang and set them out of sight, just in case someone were to intrude on his art project. And what do you know, when he leaves his room he sees Hosuh going back to his, his costume in his hands. Hosuh could survive two days with a missing plushie, right?

Stephen goes to the kitchen and grabs a cup to fill with water, and a terrible disgusting green-haired individual forces himself into his personal space. "Heeey, what's your costume?" the rat says sing-songy, clearly ready to judge him. Stephen acts like he's about to pour the water on Dan and the rat backs away in fear. "C'mon, tell me, I gotta know!" Stephen turns to face the peasant, "Only if you tell me what the deal was with Hosuh's very floral hair," Daniel smirks before laughing, "So maybe that was my doing, I just gave him a suggestion," Stephen squints at him, "That was a test, I'll only tell you if you tell me what your costume is," The rat squeaks his confusions, "That's not fair! I'm not telling you mine anyway, mine's a surprise! I would've told you why his hair was very flower-y even if knowing your costume wasn't on the line!" Stephen rolls his eyes, "The word is _floral_—"

A soft voice interrupts their conversation, "Do you guys know where Seoltang is?" Stephen tries to hold back a blush over how Hosuh probably heard that conversation just now, Dan answers first thankfully, "The dog-bunny plushie? No," Stephen laughs at his own alibi before he says it, "Did he gain sentience and run away?" Daniel laughs with him, Hosuh looks a mix of bothered and confused though. "Okay, bring him to me if you see him though, I can't find him," Hosuh continues on to look around the house for the missing plush. Stephen feels a little guilty but knows that this is for the greater good. "Okay now go away, I have to clean my piercing," Stephen starts pouring salt into the cup of water when he hears Dan's footsteps fade away. Stephen simply _cannot_ wait for Halloween.

  
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Hosuh has been panicking a little from the absence of Seoltang. He looked around his room, looked in the living room, and if Seoltang is anywhere other than those two places he has no idea where he could be. He's about to flip this house upside down to find him after the fifth time he's looked in every crevice of his room. He really should calm down before he has an uncalled for breakdown. He leans back in his desk chair and clings to Hallo like he's the last thing he has. Other than Stephen the worm, of course. Then he gets an idea. He stares at Hallo, then stares at the costume laying on his bed that he has yet to put away. How could Hosuh incorporate Hallo into the outfit? Hallo is partly named after Halloween after all, it'd only make sense. He didn't get anything orange, so he'd have to DIY something. He thinks about how bad of a combination that deep blue and orange would be, though. Yuck. It's worth a shot to try though, right?

He looks through his dresser and realizes that he has absolutely nothing orange. His attempts were futile. He's done for. Halloween is ruined. Halloween is _cancelled._ Hallo should've had his time to shine but he didn't. Hosuh falls back into his vulnerable state, now bothered about the missing plushie and the plushie that'll be missing out. He just needs to find a way to calm down. Fresh air? He'll consider it. Drawing? All his mess-ups would probably make his mood worse. Maybe he's just hungry? ...You know what? Maybe. And cooking is a good distraction. Hosuh makes his way downstairs to the kitchen, just to see that Dan and Jay were already cooking. "Hi guys," Hosuh's voice comes out a little shaky. "Hey Hoho— Oh. You look shaken up, what's wrong?" Hosuh has no idea what he looks like for Jay to be immediately concerned when he turns around, "I'm stressing out about Seoltang, I think I just need to eat and calm down," Hosuh sits at the table and rests his head on the cold surface.

"You know," Daniel turns away from what he was cooking, "I was thinking we could watch a Halloween movie after we ate if that'd help?" Hosuh smiles at the offer out of relief that a distraction is at his disposal, "That'd be fun, I don't care what we watch as long as it's not too scary," Dan laughs loudly, "It's not like you know any movies anyway, like have you even watched The Nightmare Before Christmas?" Jay scoffs next to him, "That's a Christmas movie," Dan shakes his head and laughs awkwardly, turning his focus to the food, "You're not wrong, but it's both a Halloween _and_ Christmas movie," The yellow stone wall argues his side with viction, "Christmas is literally in the title, it's a Christmas movie," Hosuh laughs lightly at how passionate his view is, "You just can't admit you're wrong, Jay," Jay points an accusatory finger at him, "You've never even watched the movie!"

Daniel claps his hands together either out of excitement or to get their attention, "That's what we should watch! Then we can settle once and for all if it's a Christmas or Halloween movie," Jay is silent a couple moments before rolling his eyes, "Fine, but it's a Christmas movie, and I demand we watch an _actual_ Halloween movie after," Daniel hums an 'mhm' and it falls silent throughout the kitchen.

  
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Hosuh has started to feel a little better with some food in his stomach, now waiting on Daniel to finish up with the popcorn so that they could start the movie. Hosuh sits next to Stephen, knowing soon he's gonna be snug next to him from the lack of space on the couch. Stephen has also said that The Nightmare Before Christmas is both a Halloween and Christmas movie, but Jay isn't having any of it. Daniel comes back with the popcorn that he places on his and Hosuh's thigh, the both of them in charge of the bowl. It's not much popcorn, so Hosuh suspects that there'll be another break inbetween the movie. It's not long into the movie before he starts to feel sleepy, even despite Jay pointing out everything that makes the movie a Christmas movie and the very quick "No," and "Shut up,"'s that he recieves after. Hosuh is just mentally exhausted from all the worrying he did, and leaning on Stephen's shoulder only makes him want to fall asleep more.

Hosuh knows that his friends will probably be disappointed that he fell asleep during the movie, it's not his fault that it's not as entertaining as anime! It is interesting to look at, but not even that can stop him from nodding off. Keeping his eyes open is just so much of a struggle when his eyelids feel like weights. Hosuh lightly pushes the bowl that was on his thigh over onto Daniel's lap and makes himself cozy as he leans deeper into Stephen's side, and Stephen wraps the arm that Hosuh had trapped between them over his shoulders in response, if Stephen said anything verbally as a response Hosuh doubts he'd be able to hear it over the low hum in his brain and Stephen's pulse, both lulling him to sleep.

He wakes up a little later, no idea what time it is, but he's very warm and it's pitch black. When his eyes adjust, he sees that Jay and Daniel fell asleep on the couch too, they were kind of spooning but Hosuh didn't care enough about that. Hosuh sits up to look to the source of the heat encompassing him, not realizing their faces were so close. Then realizing Stephen had moved him into his lap, or between his legs at least. Hosuh flushes a little, and settles his head back into the crook of Stephen's neck, listening to his slowed pulse. Hosuh can't help but reach a hand up to caress the other side of Stephen's neck, his fingertips feeling the purple hair on the back of his head. Hosuh doesn't want to leave the warmth, but he's really dehydrated.

He wiggles and maneuvers himself out of Stephen's grasp, hoping he doesn't wake him up, and heads to the kitchen that still had a light on. He thinks about if he could make tea, like chamomile, but he doesn't have the patience for that. He gets some bottled water and cracks it open, trying not to drink it too fast. It feels like water barely did a difference, but he exits the kitchen anyway with the remaining water in the bottle. He wants to go back into Stephen's hold, but then he imagines the knot in his neck when he wakes up... Fuck it. He'll take neck pain over missing out on this any day.

He quietly makes his way back to the living room, placing his bottle of water on the table and sitting back in the empty spot he left, getting back in the same cozy position and taking Stephen's arms to wrap them back around his torso. The arms respond by holding him closer, and Stephen mumbles something in his sleep. Hosuh stays still as to not bother Stephen any more, but Stephen must be somewhat awake to have said, "Hi," His voice groggy, definitely sounding like he just woke up. Hosuh unconsciously smiles, and mumbles to him as to not wake up the other pair next to them, "Hi, you can go back to sleep," Stephen's voice squeaks when he talks, "Where'd you go?" his tone is a little whiny which Hosuh nose-wheezes at, "I just had to get water," Stephen mumbles a noise of understanding, and it goes silent from there. Hosuh basks in Stephen's body heat, smiling at his half-asleep self speaking on behalf of him, it'd been about a minute when Stephen said, "You won't leave again, will you?" Hosuh just smiles wider into his neck, "I'm not gonna leave again," Stephen mumbles incoherently as a response.

Hosuh's feelings don't plan to leave, and neither does he.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im actually crying over half-asleep cuddly stephen i sob loudly into my kid cuisine  
and yes i snuck in a jaydan moment for anyone who cares!!!


	15. Day 37

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is accidentally long but heyyy i just barely made my 1 week deadline B)

Stephen doesn't know how he keeps getting himself in awkward situations. He wakes up with a sleeping beauty in his arms and a sleeping rat to his left, and boy does his neck feel strained. Stephen didn't learn his lesson about sleeping sitting up. He doesn't know what to do about Hosuh sleeping on him, but he doesn't particularly mind it. His face feels a little hot the more he focuses on that and the soft breaths on his skin so instead he uses this time to take out his phone and— Oh. His phone is on the table. There's no way he can get his phone in this situation. Stephen accepts his fate and uses one of his hands to try and relieve the pressure in his neck.

"Why, good morning," Stephen jolts at the voice and hopes it didn't wake Hosuh up, he turns to see Jay's dumb face, which now laughed at him, "I didn't mean to scare you, do you want breakfast?" Stephen squints at Jay, "I have no idea what fucking time it is, but yes," Jay goes around the couch to get Stephen's phone and hands it to him, "It's like 8-something, I should wake Dan up," Stephen unlocks his phone while Jay tries to lightly shake Daniel awake, it's 8:49AM. The highlighter hair duo have classes today so Stephen could stay here with this angel in his arms all day if he wanted to. He quickly shakes that thought away the second he hears a loud rat say, "Aww!" Stephen glares at him trying to convey the phrase 'Shut up' into every language possible using only his eyes, but Daniel only laughs as he gets up to go about his business, and Jay goes to get started on breakfast. Stephen decided now was a good time as any to write a quick rant.

  
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10/30/19

Why is Hosuh so pretty? Help? I'm a fool for having chose to just cuddle this man? I will not recover from this easily. Anyway the costume is a W.I.P. I have some things to do and I feel bad for taking Saltang? Soltang? Seoltang? Seoultang? Soultang? Away from Hosuh but it must be done.

  
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Stephen was going to type more but the body laying against him began to shift, so he exited the notes app and went on Discord so it looked like he wasn't previously typing about not just his costume secret but also his crush secret. _Crush._ Stephen must be reverting his mental age back without knowing it. He tries to avoid Hosuh's eyes when his weight isn't on his chest anymore, but his attention is directed to them when the soft voice speaks tiredly, "G'morning, you didn't push me off?" The smile in Hosuh's eyes is almost too much to bear when they're so close together, but Stephen manages to respond after he's looked away, "You looked comfy," Hosuh giggles as he laid over the couch, trapping Stephen's legs under him before accepting that this won't be comfortable and rolls off onto the floor, startling Stephen a bit.

"Yes, I _was_ comfy. Did you only cuddle me because Daniel and Jay took up the rest of the space with their spooning?" Wait. Huh? They _what?_ Stephen is a mix of confused and shocked. He speaks lightly, "...Daniel and Jay spooned?" Hosuh wheezes a little as he sits up from his spot on the ground, trying to fix his hair even though he can't see it, "I would've thought you fell asleep last, wow, I don't know what time it was when I got up but I know what I saw," Stephen is silent a couple moments before turning to look behind the couch into the kitchen, seeing that Jay is there but Dan isn't. So he yells over to the kitchen, "...Hey, Jay?" Jay briefly turns away from his cooking to look at them, "I can hear everything, can two bros not spoon? I'm sure you two have,"

Stephen and Hosuh proceed to make noises of confusion, Hosuh first to say a full sentence, "No, don't think so," "Not yet," Jay immediately laughs from the kitchen from Stephen's dumb statement that he said without thinking. Stephen is an embarrassment and it conveys on his face through redness. He resists the urge to throw his face into his hands in an attempt to look casual. Dan then comes out of his room and Stephen is thankful for Daniel's presence for once, he's a perfect distraction. "What's funny? What'd I miss?" Jay's laughter dies down as Dan trots into the kitchen, "Nothing, don't worry about it," and no matter how Dan tries to pull it out of him, Jay doesn't budge, not bothering to hide his amused smile. Stephen tries to forget what he had said earlier and tries to find more interest in his phone.

  
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Dan and Jay left for university a while ago and Stephen had been working on his costume ever since then, having finished refurbishing the skateboard. It's not _great_ but it's good, he guesses. The design on the bottom of the skateboard was now a base color of pastel blue, with the sides being pastel pink. In the center of the bottom is Stephen's mediocre drawing of Seoltang, outlined with the black paint he got, and inner lines outlined with the lilac paint. Stephen tried to spice it up with yellow and pink stars and dots around but it's mediocre at best. He's happy to have gotten the little details in though. The lilac inner lines wasn't even his idea, he asked for help and critique from his artist friends, and begged them to not tell anyone else about it. Rei didn't hesitate to say how she would've made the inner lines a different color and Stephen rushed to change that, and it did look nice. He'd have to thank Rei later.

With the skateboard done and out of the way, he got a lot on inspiration on how he could change up the outfit. Of course the idea looks better in his head, but in the images of Cinnamoroll he's searched up, yellow, pink, and blue are seen a lot together. Also he has nothing about the outfit that points to the cinnamon roll part of Cinnamoroll. He takes the articles of clothing out of the bag he had left in the corner: A pastel colored hoodie that matches the color palette he has, and is thick enough to keep him somewhat warm. He also got black jeans because Stephen knows for a fact that he didn't have black jeans before this, and he is sure he is about to ruin them with paint but whatever! It's in the spirit of Halloween and wanting to impress someone you like a lot! There is no hope for Stephen, he's gone too far.

Now if Stephen remembers correctly, there's a thing called color balance where the colors appear evenly spread across a whole outfit. That's what he needs to do. He /was/ planning on carrying this whole outfit with merely his looks and the accessories but no. This needs work. He doesn't bother googling if he can paint on clothes, he just gets straight to work. He paints white cloud-shaped splotches on the pants, and tries to draw the best tiny cinnamon rolls he can with white as well. He sets the pants aside so it can dry and moves onto the hoodie. The hood was blue, but Stephen had seen umbrellas of blue, pink and yellow with Cinnamoroll in a nice design that Stephen wants to incorporate. So he flips it over and begins painting yellow and pink on the hood with the thicker brush, hoping it's symmetrical. He could've considered getting advice from friends that actually know about this stuff, but it doesn't stay in his mind for longer than a second.

He's just about done with the hoodie and is about to check back on the pants, until his phone dings from a text.

  
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1:34PM

**water hos(e)**  
Wanna help me make cookies? Homemade halloween cookies?

**Me**  
Why would you ever ask me in particular to help you with cooking?

**water hos(e)**  
I'd have to make cookies alone and that's lonely!!! Besides, I'll be sad if say no!  
I'll cry, Stephen! I'll do it! You don't wanna make me cry, do you?

**Me**  
You've convinced me, give me a minute

**water hos(e)**  
Okay!!! \\(^o^)/

  
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Stephen turns off his phone after spending a couple more seconds smiling at the messages. He finishes painting the hood, sets it aside and makes the trek downstairs. He sees Hosuh setting all the ingredients on the counters before turning towards the sound of his footsteps, "Ah, there you are. Wow, I'm never getting used to that earring..." Hosuh mumbles the last part to himself even though Stephen could clearly hear him. Stephen laughs, "Why did you want my help, I'm gonna mess something up," Hosuh sets a big bag of flour down and shakes his hands to get some of the flour off, then his shirt, "Well, Daniel's not here, and you know I like cooking and baking with friends. Also we can just hang out!" Stephen washes his hands since that's a very loudly spoken rule when it comes to cooking and whatnot, "We're always hanging out. Like everyday," Hosuh is already miles ahead of him with mixing things together, Stephen thinks it's butter and sugar and if there's anything more he wouldn't know, "Well yeah, but you never cook or bake with me. Can you preheat the oven? I forget the number, I wrote it on the paper,"

Stephen goes to the paper on the counter that Hosuh pointed at, he looks over the paper of Hosuh's somewhat messy handwriting of the recipe. He finds where he needs to read on the paper and preheats the oven to the right degree. The paper also said "Don't forget the tray stuff and whatever!!" and Stephen goes ahead and gets the only tray they have from the cabinets under the counters, and gets a baking sheet while he's down there. "Oh, right. I usually forget to get the tray, thank you," Stephen mumbles an 'mhm' as a response and gets up to place the tray on the counter with the baking sheet on top. Hosuh was now putting more things in the bowl that he probably couldn't identify without looking at the label.

"Stephen, do me a favor and tie my hair up higher please? I forgot that too," Stephen pauses to process that for a moment, slightly confused, "How are you forgetting this much, don't you plan things?" Even so, Stephen steps behind Hosuh to undo his current low-hanging ponytail. "My brain is all over the place when I'm cooking with a recipe. Do you even know how to tie hair?" Stephen nearly loses himself in the volume of his silver locks before going back to his task at hand, "Of course I do, it's like using a hair tie to keep a bag closed, except it's hair," Hosuh has so much hair that Stephen is a little lost and struggling a bit, but he manages to make a tight tie around the hair. "Who uses a hair tie to close a bag?" "_I_ did, okay," He checks to make sure it's high enough, which it is, but it's also very messy. The silver ponytail was sticking out at weird angles in places. "I made your hair look terrible,"

Hosuh laughs a bright laugh as he sets the bowl down and goes to another one, "It doesn't matter. Are you implying that my hair isn't usually terrible?" Hosuh slides the paper closer and begins measuring up flour while Stephen stands there conflicted. "Yes? Your hair isn't like, dumb K-Pop hairstyle like Dan or stupid lightning struck puff ball like Jay so yeah. Yes, I _am_ implying your hair isn't terrible," Stephen crosses his arms as if it'd help make it sound less like a compliment. Stephen comes up with a way to avoid that conversation going on longer, "I haven't really been helping, you don't even need my help," Hosuh smiles at him while he mixes together whatever the lump of white he has in a bowl is, "You're helping by keeping me company. Also you did the things I forgot to do," He turns back to the bowls and pauses for a second, "I need you to pour this in while I stir it, and then we put in the food dye and chocolate chips," Hosuh points to both the bowl with a lump of white and to a bag accompanied by little colorful vials on the counter. Stephen's the most interested in the bag.

"Chocolate chips?!" He goes to the bag and reaches into it to pull out a handful of chocolate chips, eating them out of his hand as if he's a goat at a petting zoo. "Stop! We need those for the cookies!" Stephen laughs as he continues eating the chocolate chips in his hand. "Don't make me put my flour hands on you!" Hosuh threatens. Stephen looks down at his shirt. "My shirt is white, you hold no power over me," Hosuh continues to get in a battle stance, like he's ready to pounce anyway. "What?" Stephen questions, just as Hosuh lunges forward trying to slap his pants. Stephen steps out of the way and moves away more, but Hosuh had socks on so he just slid over and smacked his hip. "Hos! This is no fair, if I had flour on my hands you'd be done for," Hosuh laughed and went back over to the counter, holding the bowl out for Stephen to take. Stephen does, but this war is not over. Cookies come first, then guerilla flour warfare.

They finished up with the dough, chocolate chips and food dye and all. Now that they were in the oven Stephen thinks it's his time to strike. While Hosuh started washing his powdered hands, Stephen dipped his right hand into the flour— "Stephen..." Stephen nearly cracks his neck when he turns his head to see Hosuh warn him. He slowly takes the hand out, basically caught white-handed. "Hands in the sink where I can see them, don't try anything stupid," Stephen chuckles and walks over with his hands up and a dumb smirk on his face. While Hosuh starts to nervously scoot away, Stephen smacks his flour hand on the back of Hosuh's thigh and Hosuh stops with a look of amused disbelief, "You _bitch_," Stephen laughs at the strong language but before he can catch his breath, Hosuh has slid around him to the bag of flour and put both his hands in, getting in an attack position, "You sure you wanna do this right now?!" Stephen quickly composes himself as he drags the bag of flour over, putting his hands in to apply the ammo. "Engarde!"

Hosuh was too confused despite suggesting this battle, so Stephen had him trapped in the corner of the counter in seconds, with the bag of flour nearby to continue to powder him in flour. He was about to put more flour on his hands when Hosuh said in between laughter, "I always lose when you pin me somewhere, it's not fair," Oh. Does this count as pinning him to a surface or other? Hosuh boosts himself up onto the counter while Stephen is listening, "Besides, you're too cute, you look like a mischievous cat! I'd lose even if I had the upperhand," Stephen freezes at the compliment. His face burns up. Before he can think to do anything a hand pats his hair and flour particles fly around, "Boop," Stephen glares at the culprit. The culprit smiles at him from his throne on the counter. Stephen tries to put his emotions on shutdown as he goes to wash his hands in the sink, keeping a stubborn wall up. When he shuts the faucet off he turns to see Hosuh trying to clean up the flour on the floor. Right, Dan and Jay would be very confused and a little mad to see the mess they made. It's mostly Stephen's mess, though.

"You know," Hosuh wets a towel in the sink briefly and goes right back to the mess, "It's not like this is anything new, I called you cute back at the aquarium part of the zoo. You probably didn't hear me though," Stephen is going to combust if he heats up anymore. Is Hosuh talking about when he clung to his arm in the aquarium? Stephen doesn't know how to feel. It's so overwhelming that he feels like if he doesn't make up his mind on how he wants to feel right now he'll start crying. Hosuh either doesn't notice this or pretends not to notice this, and after setting the towel aside he slips on some mitts and checks on the cookies. "They've conjoined together a little bit," He takes the tray of cookies out and places them on top of the stove, taking the mitts off to get a plate and spatula. Stephen keeps his attention on the colorful cookies and not on himself right now. Wow, what lovely cookies. Very orange and green and purple cookies. Very Halloween festive.

This isn't working, so he makes an excuse, "I need to go wash this flour out of my hair," He hears Hosuh yell an "Okay!" behind him as he heads to his room, locking the door behind him before sitting against it, hugging his knees to his chest. He doesn't know what to do other than cry, so he does. He curses himself for this to be his reaction to love but he doesn't know what else he could do. He feels so lost in emotion. He feels love, but it's accompanied by so many feelings that he doesn't know how to put names to them. He chokes on his cries when he tries to breathe. It's embarrassing. Being this vulnerable is so embarrassing, but it's Hosuh that makes him put all these walls down. Stephen doesn't know if he wants to feel love anymore.

  
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"Hey," Dan starts sing-songy as he steps into the house, "Why's it smell like cookies?" Daniel navigates to the kitchen after getting no response and sees a very powdery white Hosuh, "My god Hosuh, what happened to you? You have a flour hand-print near your ass and everywhere else," He starts his interrogation before Hosuh turns around, Jay has been silent too but with a quick glance over he sees that he's still there. "Thank you, I know. Me and Stephen had a fight," Before Daniel can say anything more Hosuh gestures to a plate of orange, green, and purple cookies, "Want Halloween cookies?" The duo at the entrance pause at the treat that's probably a bribe. Jay is first to be convinced by the cookies, taking an orange colored one. "How much food dye did you use? They're very vibrantly colored,"

Before Hosuh could give an answer, Daniel got to questioning, internally eager to talk to Stephen about whatever happened here, "Where's Stephen now? I'll bring him his cookies," Hosuh goes to get a plastic bag for the cookies to go in, "Upstairs, said he was gonna wash the flour out of his hair," He puts two cookies in the bag and hand it to Daniel, "Alright, I'll bring them to him," and Daniel heads upstairs.

  
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Stephen was about to get up to actually wash all the flour on his body off, until a bag of cookies slipped under the door, "Stephen," Ah, shit. The rat. "Baking cookies with Hosuh, huh? Had a flour fight, huh?" Stephen tries to compose himself as best as he can since he was just having a mental breakdown, "Yes, what about it?" His throat felt scratchy when he spoke, and it definitely sounded the same, which didn't pass by Daniel, "You sound terrible, you didn't suddenly get sick, did you?" Stephen doesn't know what he has to hide. The last time had a breakdown he announced it with a smile, but he can't be the same for this. "I had a breakdown, don't worry about it," He hears Daniel sputter his confusions, "What do you mean 'Don't worry about it', of course I'm gonna worry about it! Are you okay? What do you need right now?" Stephen remembers this treatment. They did this last year with Hosuh too. Stephen feels pathetic being treated like this and wonders if Hosuh felt anything similar.

"I need to be alone, I'll come out later. Don't tell Hosuh about this, please," He listens to Daniel's sigh and listens as the floors creak while he walks away. He gets a text seconds later from Daniel. He glances at it, "Text me when you're ready to talk about it" it reads, and turns his phone off. He really does need to shower, so gets up to do so.

  
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"You were up there a while," Jay yells from the couch, sitting next to Hosuh as they watch YouTube on Jay's laptop, "I chatted with Stephen. Are you two watching Joe's videos?" Dan leans over the couch to see a little better, "Yeah, I was gonna go back to my room to do homework though," Hosuh says, and Dan starts shoving his shoulders, "Go do your homework, it's important, I'll keep Jay company," Hosuh stands up and heads upstairs, but says while walking away, "Have fun spooning or whatever," Daniel feels very attacked, but he doesn't say anything. As Jay sets his laptop aside Daniel sits on the couch and throws himself over Jay, trying to find a place where he's comfortable. He settles on squeezing past him to get into the corner of the couch, resting his legs over Jay's, "Something's wrong," Jay stays silent but Dan knows that just means he's listening, "Stephen's mental state is bad. He had another breakdown, he sounded terrible. I'm worried. Is love really taking this much of a toll on him?" Dan huffs and shuffles around again to lean on Jay.

"I know you've known him for years and all that, but you don't know him like the back of your hand. He has his own ways of coping. Everyone does," Dan lets Jay's words sink in. They sit in an anxious silence. "It's like when Hosuh was in a mentally bad place, except Hosuh was easier to understand than Stephen is right now," Jay sighs either out of the sad reminiscing or out of annoyance that Daniel's bringing this up as a comparison again, "He clearly doesn't fully understand it himself, we can't just force him to talk to us about something he doesn't know how to explain himself," "I know I know I know," Dan follows up quickly, tapping Jay's arm to dismiss it, "But if we don't get him to talk to us he could feel like he's stuck in his head. We have to let ourselves in his life more so that he knows we're there for him," Jay exhaustedly sighs from Dan's pretty-much-helicopter-parenting ideas, "We've made it clear enough that he can talk to us, and he will when he wants to,"

Dan groans out of annoyance from Jay's arguments, "Okay fine, whatever. ...Are we still on cuddling terms?" Jay bursts out laughing, "Yeah, duh," Daniel just smiles and makes himself snug against Jay.

  
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Stephen fought away most of the bad feelings by finishing up his costume. He added stars to the hoodie too, with another little drawing of Cinnamoroll, or Seoltang, whatever. On the white splotches he put on the pants he put stars within and outside of the splotches. The outfit now is extra cutesy, but it's the accessories that'll add the extra edge. He remembers he was gonna put little vampire teeth and angry eyebrows out of paper on Seoltang. He takes out some blank paper he had in his desk drawer, along with a pair of scissors, and cut two rectangles and two tiny triangles out of the paper. He colors the rectangles black with a sharpie pen, and got very tiny bits of tape to fold and place on one side and stick to the plush. Seoltang looks so dumb it's adorable. Stephen sets Seoltang aside and feels at ease with the work he's done so far.

He looks through the bags with the accessories, throwing the make-up to the side, and taking out some floppy black bunny ears that he's gonna have to paint the pink inside black because Cinnamoroll is a dog and not a bunny, which he found out thanks to the internet. He might be on a time crunch but he feels anything but stressed. If anything this is a destressor, he hasn't thought about his breakdown since he started working. And there he goes, remembering all of it. He probably worried Daniel, and Daniel is gonna make Jay worry, and when Hosuh notices something is off he's gonna worry too... He starts painting the inside of the bunny ears black. Why is he so hypocritical? He loves Hosuh, but he can let himself get any closer to him. Being in love has been more-so torture than anything else, so he doesn't know what to do and what he could do. He sets the now fully black bunny ears aside. He stares a rotting hole into the carpet.

Hosuh clearly feels the same, but he can't let himself believe that. He doesn't want to try anything that might be too far. Has he been accidentally getting Hosuh's hopes up with his dumb barely thought through ideas and shenanigans? Has he set this up all wrong? Stephen feels like he's losing his footing without even being on his feet, like he's staring down a spiralling staircase with a weird desire to fall down the center of it. He feels like _so many_ things and he sits frozen trying to assess them all. When he takes himself out of his head he looks back over all the work he did. What for? Why did he do all this when he knows he'll just be torturing himself more? His eyes blur with tears as he sets aside the pieces of the costume. He doesn't care what time it is, he just wants to sleep. The clothes he's wearing are comfortable enough so he buries himself in his bed. He doesn't want to look at Torchy, so he throws him somewhere in the room without looking.

Stephen doesn't want to love anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's crying hours can i get a TT in chat both TT the crying face and TT by twice song lyrics are valid for this chapter  
also im happy to see people calling dan a rat in their fics yes i notice and yes i love it


	16. Day 38 Part 1

The day was upon Stephen: Halloween. He woke up slowly, not wanting to face the sun that had risen however long ago. He rubs at his eyes and cheeks, the ghost of dried tears leaving his face. He hears his phone going off with notifications, so he checks that before getting up.

  
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8:24AM

**rat clown bastard**  
HALLOWEEEEEEEEEEEEN  
WAKE UP WAKE UP FRIENDS

**yellow highlighter bastard**  
Oh no, why are you in caps.

**rat clown bastard**  
I'm excited  
HOSUH STEPHEN  
HOSTEPHEN  
HOSTE  
HOSTESS TREATS  
My brain? so big

**yellow highlighter bastard**  
No one has classes... Let them sleep in :v

**rat clown bastard**  
no

**water hos(e)**  
Lowercase is menacing from you...

**rat clown bastard**  
good

**Me**  
Zzzzzzzzz

**rat clown bastard**  
Good you're all awake!!!!!  
Start getting in costume at 8pm, if you want breakfast get the hell down here!!!  
I got more chocolate ice cream too

**Me**  
Be right there

**rat clown bastard**  
I knew that would convince you >:)

  
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Stephen stopped looking at the groupchat after that, finally pulling himself out of bed to change into different clothes. He stretches, but it doesn't do much to relieve the discomfort in his back. Going over to his dresser he picks something out somewhat randomly, his focus being stolen by the costume that sat on top of the dresser. He doesn't know what to think about it after the episode he had last night, but it'll be fine. He can deal with it.

Finishing up his morning routine he heads downstairs, he sees Dan only just now started getting started with breakfast, "Ugh, I'm too early?" Dan chuckles without looking behind him to meet his eyes, "At least you're up! I was worried about you, you know," Saying the last part a little quieter. Stephen doesn't want to think about his breakdown right now so instead he just mumbles incoherencies and decides to ignore the topic by going out the slide door. He grabbed a coat he's pretty sure is Jay's before doing so, sliding on some snow boots as well. The snow on the porch crunches underneath him, the sound putting him at ease. The air was still, but very cold. His breaths come out as fog while he locates across the snow covered lawn over to where a swinging bench is. When they bought this house it was already here, and no one really cared about it after the first month. It's nice, of course. It's just that no one cares. He swipes the snow that gathered on the bench off of it and sits on it.

It's cold, but a nice cold. He enjoys the silence as he scrolls through his phone with freezing fingers. When he heard snow crunching he looked up to see Hosuh, waddling over to him in Stephen's own jacket. It was just a bit too big on him and it looked like the jacket became a short nightgown. Stephen wouldn't hesitate to say how cute it is on him if he didn't love him. Hosuh sat next to him, not immediately announcing why he came out here, just sitting next to him. "What's up?" Stephen says, hoping to coax a word or two out of the angel next to him nudging the snow with a boot. "Just bored. Daniel said you went out here again," Hosuh scoots over until their legs touch, huddling close to him. Stephen doesn't say anything and lets the silence fall back into their atmosphere.

Stephen was staring at his phone when Hosuh mumbled next to him, "You have nice hands," Stephen confusedly freezes at the compliment. I mean, Stephen does have rather _dainty_ hands, one would say, but... Hosuh seems to notice the way he froze and speaks in a clearer voice this time, "I... didn't mean to say that out loud," Stephen lets out a quiet wheeze that showed itself as warm air. Out of all of the things he could say he couldn't stop himself from saying one sentence in particular, "Well I have two of them if you want to hold onto one," Stephen turns his head to face him, only to meet a sight prettier than the snow shimmering in the sunlight could ever hope to be. Hosuh stares at him like a deer caught in headlights, lips slightly parted until a cold breeze hits, making him tense up as he seals his eyes and lips shut. When he opens his eyes he's looking away seemingly deep in thought or trying to pretend Stephen didn't say that.

When Hosuh speaks it relieves of any worries Stephen had before, "You caught me when I was already confused with that one, but I'll accept your offer," And Hosuh moves his arm under Stephen's to link hands with him. Stephen has a dopey smile when he looks back to his phone, a warm feeling fluttering through his body that he feels like he doesn't deserve. His smile falls the more he thinks about it. He really shouldn't be rooting on any of this, but his feelings have been overriding his thoughts lately, and he doesn't know when he'll learn to just stop. He spaces out a little until a soft voice pulls him out of his head, "What's wrong?" Stephen looks to Hosuh's concerned face, and his heart aches from his concern. "Nothing, you don't have to worry," Stephen knows that an awkward smile isn't enough for Hosuh to believe him, but it's something. Hosuh opened his mouth to say something when Dan yelled over to them from the slide door, "Come eat breakfast!" leaving the slide door cracked open for them. Stephen ushers himself away and to the house to avoid anymore confrontation.

  
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It's still a while until they have to get ready so Stephen finds himself back in his room, where he stares at Torchy whom he threw off his bed last night. He goes over to pick him up, feeling guilty about it, and takes him back to the bed. He doesn't mean to be so cruel to a plushie that did nothing but exist. It's just that it's very presence reminded him of Hosuh and he didn't want that around at the moment. Stephen doesn't know when he'll make up his mind about how he wants to feel. When he's with Hosuh all of his worries he has seem to just fade away temporarily. Is it something he has to work on with himself? He wants to hope it'll work itself out, but the feeling of doubt seems to just have intensified rapidly. Still, he needs to set it aside for the party tonight. No matter how much he wants to just hide in his room and play DOTA for the rest of the day, he worked too damn hard on a dumb costume that he is _going_ to that party.

He wonders just how unhinged his friends will get as he falls back onto the bed, staring the patterns in the ceiling. Stephen doesn't plan to drink but with how today is going he might just join their chaos. But then who'd handle those idiots? Jay isn't a problem, he can hold himself up just fine. It's Daniel and Hosuh that'd be a problem. Daniel is much too fun when he drinks, doing things he probably shouldn't do for the sole reason of "Why not?", and Hosuh on the other hand is unpredictable. He can go from clambering onto the floor wanting to sleep on the cold kitchen tiles to reacting much too slow to something hitting his head. Specifically a TV remote. Not sure if he reacts just as slowly to any other object hitting his head, yet. Stephen hopes Jay will stay within grabbing distance of the two if they're about to do something stupid.

Stephen hears a knock on his door, and not feeling in the mood to respond verbally he gets off his bed to open the door just to see no one. Odd. He swore he heard a knock. Looking down he sees a mug of what looked like something chocolate, with a spoon stabbed into it, alongside a folded paper note next to it. He takes the mug and note with confusion, nudging the door shut with his foot and setting the mug down on his desk before it could burn his hand. Sitting down, he unfolds the note.

  
_You were clearly in a bad mood so I made you a mug brownie it's basically a brownie but in a cup, it's really good! I hid them from everyone because I love them._   
_I'm sharing with you because I know you'll like it! Mug brownies are our secret now._   
_I also did some drawings that I hope you like. lol_   
_Hosuh ♡_

  
An uncontrollable wide smile plasters Stephen's face, both from the cute note and this new chocolate-y good he's about to experience. Stephen looks at the little doodles Hosuh put around the empty space, he drew a little comic of Hello Kitty with angel wings and a halo with the text 'i can b ur angle', the next panel being Hello Kitty with devil wings, horns, angry eyebrows and a knife with the text 'or ur devel'. Stephen follows an arrow pointing to the little comic and it reads 'This is basically you', and he quietly laughs at it. How does Stephen fall so easily for everything Hosuh does? There are also doodles of him and his mohawked glory, five doodles of cats, and some Cinnamorolls. ...Seoltangs. To Hosuh it's probably Seoltangs. He stares at the page as he fishes the spoon out of the brownie, and eats the chunk of brownie it pulled with it. It's _really_ good. He's almost mad that Hosuh kept this from him but he understands why. This is truly a heavenly delicacy.

Stephen tries to not let any bad thoughts get to him as he enjoys the brownie, distracting himself by looking over the note over and over. Stephen isn't sure if he deserves this kindness. Wait, no, that's not right, he shouldn't even think that. He had a brief thought about this earlier, didn't he? Has it really gotten that bad? He doesn't want to believe that being in love is why he's thinking this way but there's no other reason why all this doubt is in his head. Stephen mentally sets a checklist in his brain: If he has another thought about how he doesn't deserve someone's kindness, or anything nice for that matter, he needs to face it head on and fix it somehow. Even Stephen knows that everyone deserves kindness, so it's so out of place for him to think that himself in particular _doesn't._ He wonders if anyone else is that way, knowing that they deserve the most basic of things but still not feeling deserving of it. Stephen knows for sure he wasn't so hypocritical before all of this.

His heart feels as if it's sinking out of worry from his mentality getting so bad. Maybe he can convince himself to be confident again? Like a 'fake it 'till you make it' kind of thing. It worked one time, it can surely work again. Technically it's his fault he let himself think like this. He doesn't know where to start, but he knows he's gonna have to force some changes soon. You know what? Fuck it. He's gonna be strong going into that party, because being a mess in public is the worst thing he can think of right now. He'll just hype himself up enough for it! Having been staring at the wall, connecting dots in his head for however long, he gets off his ass and gets ready for the party which, checking the time to see that it's 7:24PM, is soon they'll have to start getting ready. Nothing wrong with a headstart, right?

  
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Rushing downstairs with a cape trailing behind him, Hosuh does a spin once he hits the ground floor. Jay claps at Hosuh's entrance, "Very cute," It's not an ideal first reaction since he is _not_ cute but whatever. Hosuh judges Jay's lazy idea of wearing his Pikachu onesie. "Aren't you going to get cold in that?" Hosuh inquires. Jay pulls on the sweater under his onesie to show him, "I have a sweater on, and I'm gonna be drinking. I doubt I'd get _that_ cold," Hosuh shrugs at the answer. Dan yells from his room, "I'm ready, but I want Stephen to see the costume the same time as you guys!" Hosuh sighs and goes to yell up the stairs, "Stephen! Come downstairs, Dan wants us all to see his costume!" Surprisingly enough, he hears an upset groan that isn't from Stephen's room, but more so sounding outside of it, "I'm a little embarrassed to have carried through with my costume, okay!" Jay laughs behind Hosuh at Stephen sounding as if he's in physical pain from whatever his costume is.

"Stephen, I'm coming up there!" Jay walks past him to go up the stairs despite Stephen telling him not to, and Jay stops before he goes up more, "No way. You didn't," Jay has a dumb smile of shock on his face, and Hosuh is frowning, wanting to find out but won't go up the stairs to spoil it for himself, "Get him down here, I want to see!" Jay continues up the stairs and from what Hosuh can hear, he's trying to use force to get Stephen downstairs, whether he's on his feet or not. When he does get the first glimpse of Stephen's costume as they come down, he swears his heart stopped. When he gets a better view of the outfit, he really takes it in.

He first saw Seoltang sticking out of the black backpack Stephen had on, and he was about to yell if it weren't for the whole ass look he served up. The pastels mixed with the black was so oddly hypnotizing, and the accessories of the floppy ears, the black puffball earring, the cute stickers he had on his hands and face, and holy _shit_ his face. Hosuh has never seen a man look so absolutely breathtaking with pastel eyeshadows with black eyeshadow slapped on top of it. Color theory can cry it's fucking heart out. Hosuh feels as if he's going to collapse when looking him up and down, but once his eyes travel back up he can't seem to get his focus off how the black lipstick frames his lips. So, in conclusion, he is truly, undoubtably, positively, left speechless.

"I know, right?!" Jay breaks however long that silence was, Hosuh is convinced time slowed down though. Hosuh doesn't trust his voice to come out right, but speaks anyway, "I'm a vampire. You're a Sanrio E-boy," Stephen laughs, "I don't know what that word means, but okay! Oh, you should see the skateboard," he turns around and pulls out a skateboard from the backpack for the two to see. Hosuh is sure it's his old one but he barely recognizes it with the way he had pimped it with Seoltang rep. Speaking of, Hosuh yanks Seoltang from the backpack, "You took Seoltang!" Stephen puts the skateboard back hastily as he turns around, "It was for a good cause! He's a good source of inspiration!" Hosuh rolls his eyes. He's not really _that_ mad, mostly relieved. He gestures to Stephen's costume, "Yeah, I can see that!" They laugh loudly when a voice is heard from the room next to them, "If you're done, can I have your attention for my costume?" Stephen scoffs, "I don't know, _can_ you?" and before Daniel could respond he swings the door open and he's a clown.

No, really. He's a clown. But with a rat ear headband.

Stephen begins to perish, letting out laughter that sounds painful, Jay might've be so shocked to laughter that now he's crying into his hands, and Hosuh finds himself wheezing but mostly wide-eyed at the spectacles around him. Daniel is _the_ rat clown. Next year he should be the circus. Daniel laughs at their reactions, losing his breath, "Okay, I know it's great, but please calm down! We have a party to get to," Stephen recovers, waving his hands at his eyes to prevent any tears from ruining his make-up, Jay is trying to re-learn breathing, and Dan is suddenly surprised when looking at Hosuh, "Do you have vampire teeth too?! Wow. Jay you don't look like you tried—" "I didn't," "—Stephen, I don't even have enough words in my brain right now for you, so with that out of the way, to the clown car," Everyone laughs again despite being completely drained of laughter, and head out to the dubbed 'clown car'. Hosuh is going to have to try real hard to keep himself from being too clingy tonight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please use the scale Not Funny to FERAL to rate your reaction to daniel's costume in the comments thanks  
edit: someone asked about stephen's costume SOOOOO here's what it looked like in my head kind of! https://www.instagram.com/p/B5_hyinAv8z/


	17. Day 38 Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please scream into a jar every time you need to and when the chapter is over leave your scream jars in the comments

Apparently, Joe didn't tell Daniel just how many people would be at this party. In fact, Stephen isn't sure if Dan knew, but this party is at a real big house. A lot bigger than their own, but Stephen isn't sure if he wants to classify it as a mansion. They had to park the car a little more down the street so if Stephen has to carry or drag a couple of drunk friends to the car, he'd have quite a bit of difficulty. Stephen feels small looking at the groupings of people who were outside, wondering just how many people would be inside. "Did Joe tell you that the entire population of Canada would be right here at this house?" Daniel and Jay laugh loudly, and if Hosuh laughed he probably didn't hear it. "No, he didn't, but think about it this way! We're a colony of penguins huddling together—" Jay interrupts Dan's analogy, "'We' as in including strangers or _not_ including strangers?" "Originally including strangers, but if you all want to huddle together I wouldn't mind!" Stephen and Jay both say in unison 'ew' and Dan just laughs more.

When they neared the house music was starting to be heard, and Hosuh latched onto Stephen and Dan's arms, probably worried about losing sight of his friends. Stephen understands, because he is gonna have to keep his eyes on at least Dan and Hosuh. Dan takes charge and drags them all in, grabbing onto Jay as well, meaning Stephen was the furthest behind. There were a lot of people inside too, but like the amount of people you'd see if you had a really _really_ big family and you all had Thanksgiving at your aunt's very large house that year. That being said, there were people everywhere and they all probably drank maybe the slightest bit of alcohol. Dan's legs seem to have a mind of it's own when he enters the living room and seeing a table set up with way too many alcoholic beverages that Stephen can only imagine how much bad all of that alcohol can do to someone's liver. Chances are they'd die of alcohol poisoning first, but.

Jay was about to approach the table excitedly when someone with a weird vertically long mask of a creature on their head comes up to them, "Oh hey guys," the person takes off the mask as he speaks, and it's no surprise it's Joe, "Nice costumes, you just got here?" Dan nods enthusiastically, and Stephen says, pointing at the mask in Joe's hands, "Yeah, what the hell is that?" Joe holds it up for him and gives a chuckle, "It's JoCrap, and this..." he begins, pulling out a blue giraffe with a face just as puppet-like as the mask, out of his pocket "...Is Joraffe." Stephen bursts out laughing at the name as Jay just stares in awe at the two puppet _things._ Stephen still doesn't quite get it. When Stephen glances over to his friends Dan is happily indulging himself in alcohol and Hosuh is hesitantly doing the same. The timer starts now. It's only hell from here. Instead of the dead and very-vaguely-remembered-in-his-head show 'My Babysitter's a Vampire', it's 'I'm Babysitting a Vampire (and a Rat Clown)'.

"Stephen," Dan approaches him with a cup of whatever alcoholic beverage he chose, "At least drink _a bit,_ I can feel your aura of dread just resonating into my soul," Daniel sets a hand on his shoulder and holds the cup towards him, Stephen cringes a little from how Daniel is definitely on the brink of going ape mode, "No, I really don't need it," Dan sighs and taps his foot irritatedly, "Okay, so be it," he leaves back over to the table, so Stephen surveys the room. There was probably someone in every corner of this room and Jay and Joe were gone. Stephen can't believe that Jay would abandon him here with a chaos ensuer and a chaos influencer. Jay's a chaos loser so whatever. He doesn't need his help. Hosuh was sat on a chair taking little sips from the cup in his hands, so Stephen took a chair over and sat besides him, which got his attention.

He can feel Hosuh's stare on him as Stephen tries to keep track of Dan and the room in general. When Stephen looks back to Hosuh, he's still staring, "Stephen, why are you so... Attractive?" Stephen awkwardly laughs as he avoids meeting Hosuh's gaze again, "I don't know, Stephen is just the best overall," Stephen watches as Daniel walks into the kitchen, Hosuh decides to keep talking though, "Yeah, you're great. You're nice, and you give nice hugs—" "Stephen!" Daniel cuts off Hosuh as he comes back, placing a cup in front of him, "It's a Shirley Temple, you like those, and it's _not_ alcoholic!" Stephen squints at Daniel as he gestures to the cup with his now free hand. "...How do I know you're not lying?" Stephen hesitantly touches the cup as Daniel continues, "Just taste it, it's exactly the same," Stephen pauses, looking at Dan with suspicion then back to the cup, he picks up the cup, and yeah. Same exact reddish-pink color, smells exactly the same... He hesitantly sips it and, well. That just tastes like a Shirley Temple. "Alright, I'm convinced,"

"Okay, good! I'm gonna go find Jay," Dan starts to walk off to the stairs and Stephen stands up, not trusting him to find Jay on his own, but Hosuh grabs onto the sleeve of his hoodie, trying to tug him back. Stephen faces Hosuh, who looks hurt from Stephen's attempt to leave, "You can come with, I don't want to leave you alone either," Hosuh shakes his head immediately even after he finished his sentence. Stephen doesn't want to have to do this, but he must. He takes Hosuh's hand off his sleeve, "I'll be right back, I just don't want Daniel to do something stupid or get hurt, okay?" Hosuh nods dejectedly as he looks back to the drink in his hand. Stephen walks toward where Daniel went, holding his drink close to his chest so it doesn't bump into anything or anyone. He finds Jay and Joe, Joe had let someone wear his mask so it was easy to spot the duo of floofy hair.

He quickly walks over to them, "Did you guys see Daniel? He went to find you guys and I want to make sure someone's monitoring him," Joe laughs and nods, pointing at the person wearing his mask. Daniel's voice comes from the mask, disguising his voice as deeper and gruffier than it actually is, "Daniel is not here, only JoWorm," Stephen is relieved they have their eyes on him, the moment of relief is cut short when the yellow puffball out of the two says, "Get back over to Hosuh, we've got Dan under control for now," Stephen mumbles an "Ah, right," and moves a little quicker when going downstairs to see Hosuh isn't in the chair anymore. Stephen begins to feel a claustrophobic kind of panic, frantically looking around the room. He pulls his phone out to maybe call Hosuh and find him that way and sees a couple of texts from him already.

  
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

  
8:47PM

**hos(e)**  
Hide and seek  
Hide andseeb  
Yes  
Seed  
No I meant seed autocorrect  
*seeb  
I  
M turning autocorrect off

**Me**  
NO let's not play hide and seek  
Where are you?

**hos(e)**  
ok autocrect is off  
secret  
hide and seeb  
you hide and then u sedb  
SEDB  
dead  
also i forgot  
dronk  
pls bring with u

**Me**  
Okay give me a hint

**hos(e)**  
am inie  
&insed  
*inside

**Me**  
Okay that's a given give me another hint

**hos(e)**  
thats funny  
thTs a given like as a prhasde

**Me**  
Hosuh just give me a hint

**hos(e)**  
woah that's a bad one: prhased  
like imagine cowboy aying thats a given  
when itc hritsmas

**Me**  
Hosuh! A hint please!

**hos(e)**  
"thats a'givin!'  
laugh track  
roll cedits  
anyway i am  
plant

**Me**  
Okay thank you I'll come find you now

**hos(e)**  
what if i said  
Roll Credentials  
thatd be relaly funny  
stepen  
*stephen  
what is another word for roll  
itd be more funny andbur smart u know words  
what if i switched to korean jeybaord right now  
why do we call kroean pop kpop and not call korean keyboards kboards

  
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

  
Stephen looks away from his phone to look for any plants. There are some, but Hosuh isn't behind or near any of them, so he looks though the kitchen. No plants other than small ones. He looks into a room of what appeared to have a couple of arcade machines and a pool table which some people were playing a game of and being loud while doing so. There's a plant by the arcade machines so he goes over to check behind it, and sees Hosuh squeezed between the wall and the pot of the plant. Hosuh is alerted at the sudden shade and Stephen tries to pull him up off the floor, "Oh my god, I'm never leaving you alone again," Hosuh gladly clutches onto Stephen when he's pulled up, "I'm fine with that," Stephen ignores his statement and guides him back out to where they were sitting.

Hosuh takes notice of his cup still there, "You didn't take it with you like I asked!" Hosuh grabs onto the cup but sees there's not much left in it, and is about to reach over to get whatever one of these alcoholic beverages he chose from. Stephen pulls his hand back since Hosuh would probably throw up if he drank any more, and sits the two of them down in the chairs. Hosuh tries to give Stephen puppy eyes, tilting his head for extra effect. Stephen's not having it. Stephen shows his disinterest by drinking more of the sweet cherry liquid, not paying one singular attention to Hosuh. Hosuh just whines and rams himself into Stephen's side.

  
———————————————

  
The night goes on smoothly, other than Jay losing track of Daniel and then finding him when he's telling some random strangers random clown-related jokes that always fell flat when he started talking about his imaginary ex-wife Karen. Stephen has been feeling oddly relaxed, maybe a little warm but he could easily blame that on Hosuh being Hosuh. Which is being cute. Hosuh has been a lot more touchy and openly sweet despite the fact that they're technically in a public place, but Stephen just lets it happen. So they were outside now, Hosuh wanted to go to the snow so he was happy to guide him out, and Hosuh is trying to create a human-sized base out of the snow around. "Why do you need a tiny igloo, there's a perfectly good base under there," Stephen says, gesturing to the shaded space underneath some stairs leading to the porch on the side of the house. Hosuh looks over and his eyes light up, and he jogs over and crawls underneath the stairs.

"There's probably _so_ many spiders in there," he says, pointing and staring to the darkness under the wooden foundation of the house which was wide open from the stairs. Stephen scoots himself in too, and takes his phone out, "You dare me to turn the flashlight on to see how many spiders there are?" Hosuh lightly slaps his arm and giggles, "Make a bet on how many!" Stephen giggles with him and stops to think out loud, "Ah, maybe... Six or more spiders. I bet Torchy on it," Hosuh exaggerates a gasp at his bet and yanks Seoltang out of Stephen's backpack and holds him protectively. Stephen laughs loudly but stops when Hosuh speaks, "Okay, I'll say less than six spiders then," Hosuh holds Seoltang comfortably in his lap, and Stephen's smile just grows bigger, "Okay, what do you bet it on though? I'm not putting Torchy on the line for nothing," Hosuh hums as he thinks about it, staring into the abyss.

Stephen notices Hosuh get a little fidgety when he stops humming but Hosuh speaks quickly, like ripping off a bandaid, "I bet a kiss on it," Stephen freezes despite already being freezing from the weather, but recovers quickly as his blood started heating up his body again, "Alright, deal," He takes another drink of his Shirley Temple for good luck, though he doesn't know if he'd rather win or lose this bet. He stakes the cup into the snow and turns the flashlight on his phone with cold fingers and points it into the abyss, effectively lighting it up, "I think I've already lost," Stephen cringes when looking at the small array of spiders, there's one big one, by his standards, and two smaller ones from what he can see. They probably froze to death since they don't seem to be moving and the webs have crystallized with frost. "Looks like three spiders to me," he turns off the flashlight and puts his phone away, not wanting to look at the spiders anymore, "I guess Torchy's yours,"

He looks to Hosuh and he still seems fidgety, or anxious. Stephen isn't an idiot, so he takes the reins and says what's clearly on Hosuh's mind, "You wanna kiss anyways?" Hosuh stops his fidgeting and looks around nervously for a second before actually meeting his eyes and nodding. Stephen's a little tense committing to this, but it's too late now. I mean, why wouldn't he want to kiss Hosuh? There's probably no better time than now, seeing as Hosuh brought this up and wants it too. Besides, Stephen tends to find himself wondering how Hosuh's lips would feel against his often. Stephen has no idea where all this courage came from, but he shakes all thoughts away and focuses on Hosuh. He scoots closer to him, nearly hitting his head on the stairs above them. Hosuh takes Stephen's hand into his own, weaving his fingers between the spaces of Stephen's hand. Stephen is unsure on what to do with his free hand but he remembers how nice the feeling of Hosuh's hand on his cheek was, so he tries to mimic that, the heat from Hosuh's face warming his hand up.

Hosuh leaned forward and Stephen's breath hitched a little until Hosuh only connected their foreheads together, his eyes closed, "Just— Whenever you're ready, okay?" It was this moment Stephen realized he doesn't know how to kiss. Like _at all._ Sure he's seen films in which the protagonist kisses the romantic interest, but how was he supposed to know how to replicate that?! He doesn't let it get to him and instead takes a couple of deep breaths...

He shifts his hand from Hosuh's cheek to the back of his neck, and leans in to press his lips onto his, eyes instinctively fluttering closed.

He tries to follow and flow with the motions of Hosuh's lips, and once he's used to it, it's way better than he thought kissing would ever be. Stephen's shoulders relax, melting into t— "Ow!" Stephen shoots back when something sharp poked his lip a bit too hard, and Hosuh immediately understands, "Oh, the vampire teeth, forgot about those," Hosuh laughs as he takes off the fake teeth, and Stephen can't help but laugh with him. Hosuh just throws the teeth into the snow carelessly, "I could taste the sweetness from that drink, now I want some of it," Hosuh leans past him to get the pink drink Stephen left staked in the ground, drinking whatever was left of it. Stephen stretches his back muscles, since leaning forward was a little uncomfy, "I think I drank so many Shirley Temples that cherry sprite has become all I can taste," Hosuh giggles at that, setting the cup away, "Good, because you might taste whatever alcohol I drank earlier, it was very strong,"

Hosuh scoots closer so there'd be a lot less leaning, and he was gonna go in for another kiss which Stephen was ready for, but then he looked down to Seoltang who was still in his lap and leaned over Stephen to stuff him back in the backpack, "He doesn't need to see this," Stephen laughs loudly, "I think he already did, but okay?" Hosuh just shakes his head and cups Stephen's cheek before kissing him again, and Stephen quickly catches up with his lips. Stephen finds his hand on the back of Hosuh's neck again, this time feeling the silver strands fit between his fingers, and he's sure he is finally ready to die right now. The hand on his face shifted down a little, Hosuh's thumb rubbing the corner of the mouth, and from the way Hosuh had tilted his head, Stephen thinks he has an idea of what Hosuh is asking. He parts his lips and Hosuh wastes no time with sliding his tongue into his mouth.

It's a weird sensation, but nowhere near a _bad_ sensation. Stephen finds himself becoming lost in how their tongues fold over each other until Hosuh pulls back to breathe, and Stephen didn't realize how he forgot to breathe as well. Hosuh hugs him tight, one hand moving between his back and his backpack to hold him ever so closer, and Stephen happily returns it, but keeping a hand in his hair. "You really like my hair, don't you?" Hosuh mumbles, and Stephen chuckles lightly as he plays with Hosuh's hair more, trying not to mess up his hair too bad, "Of course, your hair's pretty," Hosuh leans back to point a finger into his chest, "_You're_ pretty," "No, _you're_ pretty!" Before they could argue more, both their phones vibrated so Stephen assumed it's the group chat, which it was. He unlocks his phone and responds quickly.

  
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

  
11:52PM

**yellow highlighter bastard**  
Where the fuck are you two???  
Dan is gonna have the worst hangover so I want to get him home  
Besides, it's almost 12.

**hos(e)**  
what r u cindrella and you have to leave the ball at midnight  
ding dong bitch hand over the shors  
*shoes

**Me**  
And then he gets crushed by a house and we steal the shoes and clink them together to get our own damn selves home

**hos(e)**  
fuck yeah

**Me**  
FUCK YEAH

**yellow highlighter bastard**  
Oh god.  
Just go to the car  
Or can you not manage yourselves?

**Me**  
We'll manageeee  
Or we'll mange as they say in French

**hos(e)**  
what does mange mean

**Me**  
Eat

**hos(e)**  
that's so hot

**Me**  
Thank you I'm so fluent in it

**yellow highlighter bastard**  
Get to the car before I delete this fucking group chat because of you two.

**Me**  
Okay fine

**hos(e)**  
jay has anyone ever told u that when yor hair moves at all about they hear the oo-oo-oo-ooh oo-oo-ooh sound from aoa's hit songh mini skirt or am i the first

**yellow highlighter bastard**  
What the fuck

**hos(e)**  
sometimes it has the woo-oo-oo-oo-oo-ooh from their song short hair kindabvibes tho idk if u know that one

**yellow highlighter bastard**  
Hosuh I know what AOA is and I know some of their songs, we were alive during their peak

**hos(e)**  
dude remember wondergirls  
i want nobody nobdoy but you clapclap clap i want nobdy ndoboy but you claoclap clap

**yellow highlighter bastard**  
PLEASE come to the car

  
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

  
Hosuh and Stephen giggle as they waddle across the lawn to the sidewalk, Stephen holds Hosuh close with a hand on his shoulder, looking at the chat from Hosuh's phone, "He's so boring and stupid, he's perfect for Dan," Hosuh stifles a giggle and nods, continuing to type in the group chat as they walk down the sidewalk, Jay staring them down the whole way, other than glancing at his phone to type back to Hosuh's antics. When they were actually at the car Jay looks at them weird says, "You didn't do anything stupid, did you?" and Hosuh climbs in the backseat where a very smiley tired Daniel is, shouting out behind him, "No, sir!" Stephen looks at Jay for a second before getting in the passenger seat, "How do I know you aren't going to crash this car into a pole or something?" Jay remains emotionless when he says, "If you are assuming I am drunk, I barely drank because Dan took up all my attention span. And I am heartbroken about it. Now get in the car," Stephen accepted that answer and clambered into the seat, and waited for them to get home.

Jay got them all home safely, only bothering to help Dan out the car and into the house, since it seemed like he was having trouble holding his own weight up. Stephen got out of the car and Hosuh immediately clung to him again as they got inside. "I'm gonna take Dan to bed and get him water, you two should drink water too," Hosuh immediately perked up, speaking as if water is his prince charming and savior, "I _love_ water," and headed into the kitchen to get a bottle of water. Stephen giggled at him, following behind to get his own water. The water just tasted weirdly flavorful when he drank a bit of it because of taste that was already in his mouth. Hosuh scrunched his face when he drank it, meaning he probably had the same experience. He then looks at Stephen to realize something, his face falling, "I messed up your lipstick, I'm sorry," Stephen laughs, "It's just lipstick, and I doubt I'm gonna wear any again anytime soon," Hosuh then smiles now that he knows it's okay.

"I'm tired, but I want to look at you more," Hosuh giggles right after and continues talking, "I just imagined that as like, a Scribblenauts quest thing, it was really funny. I wish you saw the image in my mind," Stephen giggles with him for probably the hundreth time tonight, "No, I imagined it perfectly. Have you ever played Drawn To Life?" Hosuh gasps and hops in place, "Yeah! I lost the cartridge so long ago though, do you wanna look at my DS game collection?" Stephen nods enthusiastically and lets himself be dragged upstairs into Hosuh's room. Stephen has seen his collection before however long ago, but Hosuh has been trying to get as many DS games as he can, like it's a Pokédex. Hosuh goes over to his night stand and opens the bottom drawer, pulling out a bag that was rectangular with rounded corners, and just a bit bigger than a pencil case. When he zipped it open, DS games started spilling on the floor, "Look at all them! They're all like tiny fish eggs, all of them are my baby. Like the intro to Nemo but without the bad part," Stephen sits on the floor and helps gather the DS games that fell out into one pile.

Looking over the pile he sees a lot of anime styled games he didn't see before, which isn't a surprise. He sees games like Ace Attorney, but then Kirby games, a lot of different editions of Nintendogs, Pokémon games he forgot even existed and it goes on and on. "These are only the DS games, I've been trying to get more 3DS games too. Oh! There's the Hello Kitty game!" Hosuh picks up a cartridge with Hello Kitty's face on it, "It's so cute, I have to show you," He fishes out his 3DS XL and pops out a game to put this one in, aggressively tapping the box for the game to start up the second the screens turn on. Stephen starts sorting all of the cartridges into categories in a scale of 'Looks cute' and 'Looks intimidating' until Hosuh squeals as he starts the game, "Look at how blocky it is, look," Stephen scoots over to look at the game and yeah, it's blocky as all hell. "This is ancient," Stephen watches as Hosuh moves Hello Kitty to the east of the bright colorful town, "I know, right?! The restaurant minigame is so fun, you have to play it,"

Stephen ended up falling in love with the simplicity of the game but mostly from the happiness that Hosuh had with it, and they played a couple other games while they were at it. Hosuh showed him MySims Kingdom, which he had no idea that Sims games were on the DS. Stephen thought the music was really pleasant to listen to and that the canoe minigame was the worst. Hosuh also showed him an iCarly game that left Stephen shocked and confused at the concept. Hosuh hides so many more amazing things than he initially thought. They also played a Littest Pet Shop game because of the floppy bunny ears, and after a couple of rounds of 'Skyride' to get more Kibble to buy a new animal friend, they found out it was 3AM.

"Time for bed," Stephen stands up but Hosuh grabs onto his hand, and Stephen answers everything the look he was given had asked him, "I'll come back, I just need to get in pajamas. You should too," Hosuh nods and lets go of his hand, Stephen walks out a little hesitantly, but makes it to his room and quickly changes out of the costume, remembering to bring Torchy since he did lose a bet. He took off all the accessories, setting the backpack on the ground and pulling Seoltang out, then grabbing Torchy, and heading back to Hosuh's room. He feels like he's missing something, but nevermind that. He nudges the door open with his foot and throws Seoltang at where Hosuh lay on his bed. Hosuh grabs Seoltang and hugs them tight, "No stuffed animal abuse!" Stephen laughs at him and decides not to throw Torchy too.

He welcomes himself into Hosuh's bed and tries to steal the blankets away once he's cozy under them. Hosuh doesn't really try hard to protest against it, "Stop it, my blankets my rules," Lightly tugging them back. Stephen laughs tiredly as drowsiness starts to hit him, "You'll just have to get closer then," Which Hosuh silently complies with, shifting close enough until he's resting his head on Stephen's shoulder. Of course it's comfy, but Stephen shifts onto his side to half-embrace Hosuh, even if his shoulder will hate everything about this in the morning. Hosuh adjusts to it quickly, and a silence falls over them, other than each other's breaths filling it.

Hosuh all of a sudden mumbles, "Stephen?" and Stephen hums back an 'mhm', waiting for Hosuh to continue. "I love you a lot," and Stephen has a bit of an internal panic, the kind that feels like your heart is being squeezed uncomfortably, still beating against the pressure holding it back. He tries to gloss over the feeling and forces words out, "I love you too," He holds Hosuh a little tighter for a second as he leans over to give him a kiss on his forehead, which makes Hosuh's smile beam for a second before he goes back to trying to sleep. Stephen waits for sleep to arrive.

Stephen felt a lot of good today, but he already has a feeling he'll wake up a little differently.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> story time! nonalcoholic shirley temples and alcoholic shirley temples taste the same there was a predicament when i was younger, let's just say that. i love shirley temples,,,,tasty cherry sprite, sip sip
> 
> THERE'S A LOT TO UNPACK SO FIRST OF ALL YEAH ALL OF THAT HAPPENED IF YOU WERE EXPECTING DAN TO COCKBLOCK THEM AGAIN  
second of all GOD I DIDN'T LOOK AT THIS CHAP FOR A WHOLE DAY AFTER WRITING THE KISS SCENE LIKE I NEEDED A CLEAN MIND never wrote shit like that in my life Kiss scenes? read her never met her. until now. if it's actually so mediocre that you want to bite your nails to the beat of the big time rush theme song i am sorry they're drunk and gay that's my excuse  
thirdly stan Hello Kitty Big City Dreams and Littlest Pet Shop (the ds game) i miss having them both
> 
> fun fact originally this was gonna nosedive into angst but it took this turn instead and im happy with it


	18. Day 39

Stephen wakes up a little confused as to why he's in Hosuh's bed and soon enough a bit embarrassed since he's holding Hosuh so close. Stephen untangles himself from Hosuh who thankfully didn't stir, and realizes his phone isn't in here. He grabs Hosuh's phone off the night stand to check the time, 7:04AM, and sets it back where it was. He doesn't want to be around when Hosuh wakes up, if he were still cuddling Hosuh like that he'd pronounce himself done for. He silently exits the room, closing the door behind him, and goes back to his own room. He grabs his phone off the nightstand, checking to see there weren't any messages he missed. He notices Torchy isn't on his bed. Did he leave Torchy with... Oh. The gears in Stephen's head start to turn as he tries to relay the events last night. They went to the party, he remembers seeing Joe, Dan escaped to hang out with Jay, Hosuh had a little too much and started playing hide and seek with him... He remembers there were messages, he navigates through his phone to those.

It starts to get a little blurry from here, but he notices that the groupchat had some messages from last night and his brain immediately remembers where he received the messages and when he received the messages. His heart stops. Everything seems to stop. He feels like he's in a state of limbo, and it's cold. He remembers what happened, and it hits him in the gut. Stephen lowers himself to the floor, using his mattress as support. He tries to think about what he should do, should he act like it never happened? But what if Hosuh knows it happened? If Hosuh didn't know it happened wouldn't he be mad if Stephen cracked and told him about it many many days later? He could try communicating with Hosuh to maybe figure out what to do from this, but Stephen would never be able to find his words since he's the worst at communicating his feelings. But that's the thing, he remembers Hosuh saying he loved him last night. Heck, Stephen even said it back! It's a lot to take in and he's sure Hosuh is expecting some conversation now, but Stephen just _can't._ Warm tears start falling down his face as he chokes and sputters on his breaths. What the hell is he to do?

He wipes an eye with the back of his hand, pulling it back to see colors upon it. I guess he forgot to take off the make-up. He might as well get it off now as a little distraction. Standing despite his legs shaking a little as a way to say no, he heads to the bathroom and stared at the mess in the mirror for a couple seconds. He eyes the black smudges on and around his lips before grabbing some toilet paper, wetting it down and wiping off the lipstick, then flipping it over to re-wet it and rids of the eyeshadow, his tears getting swept away with it. He knows the day has started, but he doesn't know if he wants it to since he's gonna have to face this somehow. He decides to stall until he has something to do.

  
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7:44AM

**Me**  
Bekfast soon!!!

**Silversoft Cat Webkinz**  
B...BEKfast.  
Are you still hungover Daniel??

**Me**  
I said what I said  
And no

**Purble Place**  
I don't think I could stan any other kind of Daniel so thank god.  
*Stand, not stan.

**Me**  
THAT'S IMPLYING YOU STAN ME  
I AM WORTHY OF YOUR ADMIRATION???!!!!

**Purble Place**  
I CORRECTED MYSELF WHO WOULD EVER STAN YOU

**Me**  
WELL I STAN ME!!!

**Silversoft Cat Webkinz**  
WHY ARE WE YELLING?

**Purble Place**  
STEPHEN IS THE ONLY HUMAN THAT SHOULD BE STANNED! ONLY STEPHEN!

**Jhia Pet**  
.

**Me**  
GOOD THING THAT'S A VERY LOOSE OPINION OR TWITTER STANS WOULD COME FOR YOUR THROAT

**Jhia Pet**  
..

**Purble Place**  
PEOPLE STAN TWITTER???

**Jhia Pet**  
...

**Me**  
NVM YOU'RE A BOOMER YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND

**Jhia Pet**  
SHUT UP AND COME EAT >:V

**Purble Place**  
FUCK YOU DAN I'M JUST TECHNICALLY INEPT  
AND OKAY

**Silversoft Cat Webkinz**  
I refuse to look at capitalized letters for the next hour...

  
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"Well, that'll get them down here soon enough," Dan leans back in his chair, content with the yelling match he had over text, "Stephen's more Stephen than usual, I wonder what happened last night," Daniel hears Jay snort from where he was at the stove, "Quite a bit happened," Daniel raises an eyebrow in confusion when he turns to see a barely put-together Hosuh arriving in the kitchen, and Dan has to grab the drowsy man by the wrist to inspect something. Hosuh appears confused as Dan stares at his face for a second, "Daniel, wha—" "You _didn't,_" Hosuh continues to look confused and Daniel sighs and just says simply "Go clean that lipstick off and we'll talk later mister," Addressing Hosuh as if he were his son that snuck out late at night, and Daniel is tempted to yank on Hosuh's ear to really sell it. Hosuh processes his words and gets a little red in the face as he realizes, "Oh," understanding the situation he got himself in. He retreats to the bathroom nearby without another word.

"So about the _quite a bit_ that happened..." Jay starts, turning and holding his hands up in defense, as if he had something to do with it. Daniel continues the topic, "When I gave Stephen alcohol I didn't mean for _that_ to happen! Well actually, I think I subconsciously wanted that to happen, but I just wanted him to relax a little! Y'know, since..." Daniel trailed off with a hand gesture, not wanting to mention Stephen's breakdowns in case Hosuh were to hear. His hand gesture count is already through the roof from how he tried to explain his intentions with a lot of confusion. Jay simply nodded before going on, "They were so giggly. You saw the groupchat, they were sharing one braincell. And normally they both have like... Three. I think today will be a little off," Daniel nods in agreement, feeling a little anxious, and Jay goes back to cooking.

Silence other than the sizzling from the food cooking had passed through as Hosuh came back and Daniel had the dumbest thought all of a sudden, "Would you rather listen to only K-Pop or only sad songs for your entire life?" "Huh?" Hosuh sits down across from Dan, voicing his confusion, and so does Jay but in mumbles. "I don't know, it was just a thought I had. I'd say K-Pop," Daniel stares off into space as he thinks about it, he looks back to see Hosuh squinting at him, Jay however perks up first, "Nope, I'd rather go with sad songs," Hosuh sighs as he turns his head to watch Jay putting food on plates, "I dislike K-Pop as much as you do, but think about it. Everything Korean fits under the umbrella term K-Pop now. So it's every genre of music you could want, it's just in Korean," Jay just shakes his head and hums his disapprovals without elaborating. Daniel likes his stubbornness though, even if they argue because of it. Jay's fun to talk to. The conversation about the 'would you rather' continues for a while after that.

His train of thought is interrupted when Stephen comes and sits next to him. Normally Stephen sits next Hosuh, not like it's a rule or anything, it's more-so a seating habit they silently follow by. Even the timing of this being after last night, it sticks out to him a little. Of course, he'll talk to him later as well. Stephen is silent until Dan decides to acknowledge him, "Stephen, would you rather only listen to K-Pop or only listen to sad songs?" Stephen opens his mouth to say something but stops to think again, making Daniel laugh loudly at his thinking face. "Okay, look, that's where the problem is, I don't like K-Pop, but I like happy songs, not sad songs," Stephen sighs as he sets his elbows on the table, holding his head in his hands as he stares into the wood of the table. Hosuh then speaks up, "Truly a moral dilemma," Stephen chuckles but quickly stifles it, when normally he'd let that dolphin laugh of his pierce everyone's eardrums. It's just getting more odd to Daniel.

Stephen lifts his weight off the table to deliver his final answer, "I don't want to have to say this, but I would rather listen to K-Pop than listen to sad songs," Jay mimics vomiting sounds at Stephen's answer. Dan laughs at snaps to shouting at him, "You just have a bias against K-Pop! All of you do! K-Pop is good!" Dan accusedly points at each of them before switching to finger guns, which Hosuh points a finger gun back at him with a chuckle as Jay says, "It's the K-Pop _industry,_ Daniel," As he begrudgingly brings over their plates of pancakes and bacon, Daniel just groans, "We're in for a long rant, aren't we?" And yeah. They were. Breakfast continued as Jay ranted on about the K-Pop industry so much that Stephen left as soon as he had no need to be in the kitchen. At least, Daniel assumes it was for that reason. Daniel isn't sure if Stephen is still lingering around so he takes his phone out and shoots Hosuh a text.

  
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**Me**  
SO...... ?????

**Silversoft Cat Webkinz**  
I don't know where to start???

**Me**  
Start with what you remember!

**Silversoft Cat Webkinz**  
I remember plenty that's why I'm so lost  
Why did you give Stephen alcoholllll

**Me**  
HE NEEDED TO RELAX OK >:(  
wait how'd you know

**Silversoft Cat Webkinz**  
Only a drunk Stephen wouldn't stop my drunk chaos

**Me**  
ah of course  
NOW TELL ME THE DETAILS

**Silversoft Cat Webkinz**  
Jesus you sound like Ann

**Me**  
GASP jesus sounds like ann omg jesus is in this chat omg He rose today for the gays

**Silversoft Cat Webkinz**  
Did Ann hack you...??? '>_>  
Moving on!!!  
So first chaotic experience was me initiating hide and seek because I was drunk and he left me unsupervised and I got clingy

**Me**  
YOU???? BEING A CLINGY DRUNK??????? Not surprised

**Silversoft Cat Webkinz**  
Only with Stephen, I think??? Maybe because I've gotten used to being affection with him but moving on from that;;  
I think we started playing rock paper scissors as an alternative to beer pong at one point??? Also I may or may not have said "my hands are...rather empty right now" so he would hold my hand

**Me**  
LMAO very smooth hosuh I'm a proud father. or a proud hyung if you'd ever refer to me as one

**Silversoft Cat Webkinz**  
You're four months older than me I REFUSE

**Me**  
im hurt...i cannot believe....that i am not an older brother figure to you.....  
Anyway get to the spicy part!!!!!!!!

**Silversoft Cat Webkinz**  
It's not even that spicy it's like bbq chip flavor spicy!  
But I kinda made a bet on something about the amount of spiders under the house and I bet a kiss on it

**Me**  
VERY SMOOTH HOSUH YOU! DID! THAT!!!

**Silversoft Cat Webkinz**  
I won the bet though and now Torchy is mine but we kissed anyway just because  
That's kinda about it!

**Me**  
WAS THERE TONGUE YES OR NO?????!!!

**Silversoft Cat Webkinz**  
( //.`__.`;)> Uh  
Under court law I stress my right to remain silent for that question!!

  
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Daniel reached over the table to flick Hosuh on the forehead and Hosuh held a hand on the spot Daniel hit after squeaking his pain out, "I'm a grown man Daniel, I can kiss with tongue if I wanna!" Daniel threatens him by preparing another flick and Hosuh scrambles out of his chair to get away, just to get grabbed by Jay from behind, "End him, Daniel," Daniel laughs and approaches, charging up the finger flick while Hosuh struggles, laughing at their playfighting, "I'm a responsible adult! Your flicks mean nothing!" Daniel shuts Hosuh up with the second flick to his forehead, and Jay lets him go. They all laugh about it and Daniel hugs Hosuh as an apology for the flick bit.

Daniel sees Stephen on the couch as he pulls away from the hug, having forgot he was still lingering around. Stephen doesn't appear to be affected by Hosuh's outbursts, maybe he was spacing out looking at his phone, but... Daniel whispers to Hosuh, "Me and Jay can go to our rooms and shut up if you want to talk to Stephen," Hosuh furrows his brows in thought as he looks over to Stephen, still absorbed in his phone, before looking back to Daniel, "Maybe later today,"

  
———————————————

  
And later that day Hosuh had conspired with Daniel and Jay, the Sprite logo parental friends, the Chernobyl rat and Pikachu duo, to go out and do whatever while he would be conversing with Stephen. Of course the two could've just been in their rooms but Hosuh thought that maybe Stephen wouldn't be as open with him knowing they're around. Hosuh had conducted a simple plan, text Stephen to come play Minecraft on the TV with him because Minecraft is calm most of the time, and wait for a time to bring it up. He gets it all set up and opens Minecraft before going to text Stephen, while the soft music from the game already soothes his worries.

  
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**Me**  
Stephen!! Play minecraft with me!!

**Stephen🦄💜**  
I don't even play Minecraft?

**Me**  
It was a demand not a question, get down here!! ( O v O)/

**Stephen🦄💜**  
Aye aye chief...

**Me**  
You mean captain?

**Stephen🦄💜**  
...No  
Shhhh

  
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Hosuh smiles at the messages and turns on a second controller for Stephen now that he's going to be coming down. Hosuh hears Stephen's footsteps and turns to smile at him and say "Hi," which Hosuh realizes now that he might've said that a little too sweetly, y'know, with the smile he's giving to his mohawked friend and all. Stephen glances to the television screen for a second before looking back to Hosuh, all with a sort of uneasiness in his face. "Hi, um, so... So you're _not_ trying to talk about last night?" Stephen still doesn't sit down on the couch, hand resting on the back of the couch, a finger tracing scribbles into the fabric.

Hosuh feels like he's been caught red-handed with what his intentions were and holds his own hands together in his lap, "Well, I was going to, actually; talk about it, I mean. Unless you want to talk about it now—?" "I don't want to talk about it," Hosuh falls silent at how fast Stephen replied, watching how Stephen's eyes refuses to meet his. Hosuh decides he'll just have to steer this conversation in the direction he wants it to go. "O..._kay,_ but we'll talk about it soon, won't we?" "No, I don't—!" Stephen stops himself to revert back into a calmer tone, balling his hands into fists and then relaxing them after a couple seconds, "I _don't. Want._ To _talk_ about it. _Ever._ That's what I've decided," "Stephen," Hosuh tries to soothe with the tone in his voice, but the tension doesn't lift.

Stephen continues to stand there, looking down at the carpet, scratching at the couch's fabric, maybe waiting for Hosuh to let him off the hook. Hosuh doesn't want to let up though, "We can't just _not_ talk about it, I assume we both remember what happened. If you could just tell me what all of that meant, I—" "Nothing! It meant nothing, can I go now?" Stephen raises his voice, scaring Hosuh for a moment, but that anxiousness slowly melts to become a molten anger, "We both know that's not true," Hosuh gives Stephen a stern stare and holds it when Stephen turns to face him finally, "Who are you to determine what _I_ think it's meant as?! It's so fucking..." Stephen trails off, making wild hand gestures before giving up and curling his hands in on themselves again. Hosuh deducts that Stephen was probably going to say 'stupid' and he has to agree. This _is_ stupid.

"_Stephen,_ you said you loved me last night," Hosuh's gaze doesn't waver, and his confronting tone should be enough to show that Stephen should be taking this seriously, and he swears he sees a flash of an emotion in Stephen's eyes for a second that Hosuh couldn't put his finger on before it was gone, "I-I was drunk, and stupid, and it doesn't mean anything! Okay?!" Hosuh's blood begins to boil in his veins from Stephen's denial, and he wonders for a second if Stephen is actually _this_ dumb or if he's just being immature, "Oh, because all of a sudden scientists have confirmed that alcohol makes you spew lies when you clearly don't act like you're lying in that moment? Okay," Hosuh's mouth throws out sass before he can think, even huffing a single laugh out, looking away from Stephen as if he can't even stand the sight of him, "That's not what I meant, what I meant is that I did something I didn't intend to do and said something I didn't intend to say and it doesn't mean anything! The sass is uncalled for,"

Hosuh snaps his head to look back at him the second he himself snaps. Hosuh stands up so fast he gets lightheaded while he speaks, "The _sass_ is uncalled for?" Hosuh can finally place that emotion in Stephen's eyes now that it stays. He's scared, guilty, definitely hurting. Hosuh doesn't care right now. "The _sass_ is uncalled for when you can't even stop yourself from yelling at me and acting like a fucking teenager about this?! Why can't you just talk to me like a normal person?!" Hosuh looks for an answer in Stephen's face, and Stephen won't meet his eyes again. He does briefly for a couple of seconds, but looks away and mutters "I'm sorry," before walking back to and up the stairs. Hosuh just watched him leave.

It was then that Hosuh realized he'd been crying, and he's not sure for how long. It was so quiet now, other than the music from the television still. The music, despite being soft, grated his ears. It just didn't belong in that moment. He quickly shut the TV off and sat back on the couch, rubbing away the tears with only the dim light coming from the kitchen as comfort. Hosuh relayed the conversation in his head, realizing he's no better for snapping back at Stephen, and the tears resumed the more he toppled from thought to thought about it. Does Stephen hate him now? Has he hurt Stephen more times than this? What if Stephen never talks to him again? What if he's lost Stephen as his closest friend? The thoughts piled on top of each other much like his tears, and before he knows it the tears slowly stop and his breath slows down, and he gives up any basic needs he has to attend to and allows himself to fall asleep right there.

Hosuh hopes he hasn't ruined his feelings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi!!! sorry for the long vacation that just so happened to extend up until stephen quit danplan. i've been busy with keeping people updated on that situation and haven't had the motivation to write, even before stephen had quit. so no worries, this fic isn't discontinued or on an undetermined hiatus! im just a procrastinator idiot fool!!! i took one break and then didn't want to write!!! it's so dumb!!! i know a lot of people have been cancelling their fics and it makes me so sad because i read almost every fic on the dp ao3 ;( so here i am, bringing angst!!! sorry that i have come to make you hurt but this was foreshadowed so. and yes daniel named his friends' contacts after various nostalgias.
> 
> anyway...my dan is a rat/clown joke didn't age so well now did it 😳


	19. Day 40

Stephen is the biggest, the most _stubborn_ fool. He doesn't even know what he was thinking. He spent the whole day trying to be distant from Hosuh, to be away from him with it still looking normal, and he just _had_ to say yes to playing Minecraft. Part of him kind of wondered what Hosuh would say, deep down knowing that he'd bring _it_ up, maybe that's why he said yes. Maybe it was just because Stephen loves him. Yet he found himself blatantly lying and upsetting Hosuh, the last thing he ever wanted to do. It was such pure anger, and seeing Hosuh cry over it... Stephen could've broke and told him he was lying right then and there if he hadn't felt like he'd already fucked up immensely. In the moment he was in shock mostly from how Hosuh reacted, but he can't blame him. His heart hurt the more he tried to deny everything to Hosuh, but he wants to think it was for the best. Even though Hosuh didn't believe his lies and probably doesn't intend to.

So here Stephen was at 9AM thinking about maybe skipping breakfast so Hosuh and himself didn't have to see each other and trying to ignore the increasingly more aggressive dings coming from his phone. He knows it's from Dan, and that makes him not want to look even more-so. Eventually the dings stopped and after a while he decided to look at the messages he missed.

  
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9:24PM - Yesterday

**green rat**  
You better have a good explanation.  
I just talked to Hosuh, and I want to know what went through your goddamn mind  
Okay sorry I'm just very upset with you and I want you to talk to me  
Are you sleeping or avoiding talking to me?  
Leave me on read for avoiding and do nothing for sleeping  
Ok so you're sleeping, I'll talk to you in the morning then

8:44AM - Today

**green rat**  
Stephen I'm not mad, just disappointed  
Actually I'm still mad  
Let's not say mad let's say upset  
We're talking about this today.  
I'm driving Hosuh and Jay to uni in a bit so we can talk when I get back  
Also I'm leaving food out for you  
Like I'm the human in Ratatouille I'm leaving the house unattended and you're the rat going stealth mode to munch  
haha who's the rat now 😈  
Ok I'll stop, back to seriousness  
Don't try to avoid this either!!!!! You need to talk about this to me!!!!! and Hosuh!!!!!  
I'm kind of very pissed over how you acted, then again I only talked to Hosuh maybe you weren't being an idiot. But I believe Hosuh without a doubt in my mind so I'm biased  
Ok I have to drive now bye

  
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Stephen had a feeling Dan would be mad. Daniel cares a lot about Hosuh, so him finding out that Stephen had made Hosuh so upset that he yelled and cried probably set off every Hosuh protection alarm. Maybe Dan thinks Hosuh will fall back into his old habits? Stephen can't deny that the thought crossed his mind and it worried him. Stephen doesn't want Hosuh to neglect his health because of what he had said, that's the worst scenario.

  
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9:02AM

**Me**  
Sorry  
I'll go eat now, we can talk when you get back

  
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Stephen threw on some casual and comfy clothing, brushed his teeth and the gist, and head downstairs. The quietness, other than his footsteps, seemed to itch away at him as he stepped into the kitchen. The plate on the table had a bacon and egg sandwich on it, and there was a note next to it. Stephen read the paper since it was obviously meant for him.

  
_For purple M&M man,  
_ _I talked with Jay to try and understand what was going through your mind, (not like you're that close w/ Jay or anything, he's just smart) and I think I can kind of understand! I'll try not to say anything dumb like "wow why would you lie like that now he's sad" or "wow you find out you like each other and yet you can't commit" but if I do just slap me! You know I love and care about you, right? I had a little realization that I'm not mad at you, I'm just mad at your actions and my brain went BOOM big brain. If anything I'm mad because I care lol._   
_-Daniel :) ❤  
  
_ _Almost forgot please actually eat and take care of yourself I worry about you!_

  
Stephen tries stopping the small smile from the note and fails at that. He doesn't even know why he's tearing up, getting emotional over it. Is it the concern? The fact that he's understanding and that his rush-rush-rush mentality has taken a halt for this? Is it just the small reassurance that Daniel cares about him? He rubs his eyes to force the tears away, and puts the note aside, focusing more on eating instead.

Later, when Stephen was done eating, he was on the couch mindlessly refreshing Twitter as if there'd be anything new. He snapped out of it when he heard the lock of the front door shift though, but he still stared away, knowing he had a lot to be guilty of. "Hey clown," Daniel says sweetly while he walks over, and Stephen freezes before laughing a boisterous laugh at the contrast of the words versus the tone. "I hoped that'd get you out of your sulking, let's talk, okay?" Daniel sits on the couch facing him, criss-crossed, with a warm smile on his face. Stephen shifts to face him as well, copying the pose, and fills his lungs with air after his bout of laughter, "Tell me where I should start,"

Daniel stares off into nowhere for a second to think, before immediately perking up, "So you and Hosuh kissed! Made out, even! With tongue, I was told!" Stephen groans into his own hands before dragging them down his face just for them to plop in his lap, "Yeah I know, I may have overheard a bit of _who_ you heard that from. So yeah, that _did_ happen. In fact, fucker, you gave me alcohol!" Daniel laughed and batted away Stephen's accusatory finger, "You're making it sound like I drugged you or something, I just wanted you to relax. You've been so stressed out, I hope I didn't make it worse because I did that..." Daniel's smile falls while he finishes saying everything he has to say, and Stephen starts to worry about him for a change, "No, it's— It's fine, I'm not really that mad," Daniel sighs out an "Okay," and fixes his hair when it was already fine.

"Anyway, right now I mainly want to know... Why you got so defensive last night about your feelings," Stephen knew that topic was coming and it tugged at his heart uncomfortably, mostly because the memory was fresh in his mind and what he said and did hadn't had a chance to leave his system. "I'm... Scared," Stephen paused there to look for ways to explain how he felt when Daniel said "Why?" and Stephen found himself looking at the floor while he tries to work it out in speech, "I mean, I love Hosuh, I can't imagine a world without him, but the idea of starting a romantic relationship, it's just... Such a... It's a thing I don't know much about, like what if I mess up, what if I say something wrong, what if it turns out we don't work well _together_ compared to being best friends and what if we break up and nothing feels the same, and..." Stephen runs out of words as he trails off, trying not to cry in front of Daniel even as he voice started to get shaky.

"Stephen, I'm no wise philosopher like Jay, but..." Stephen looks back to him and Daniel stares at him with a mix of determination and sympathy in his eyes, "Even if things weren't to work out like you both hope it would, at least it had happened, right? It'd be something new for you, and new can be scary for a lot of people, but there's nothing to be scared of when it comes to love. I'm sure Hosuh would be honest with you and tell you when you do something he doesn't like, besides, everyone's different so there's no _one_ right way to show someone you love them day by day," Stephen glances down to his own hands and fumbles his fingers over each other as he figures out his thoughts, "I think I'm mostly just scared of losing the relationship I have with Hosuh already? Either from getting together or breaking up, and I know everything is temporary and whatever, but... But that fact makes it even scarier, and I feel like I've _already_ fucked up what I have with him!" Stephen throws his hands up briefly before staring up at the ceiling.

Stephen hears sniffling and looks back down to see Dan rubbing at his nose and looking away, "Why are you crying, I'll cry too!" Stephen complains even though his eyes have already been watering, and Daniel looks back to wave his hands dismissively, "I'm not crying, it just makes me sad to hear all of this coming out of your mouth, and I'm—" Daniel pauses as he starts to get choked up, speaking a little quieter this time, "Sorry, I know I shouldn't be getting emotional since this is about you, but I'm worried you're gonna stop caring about yourself, like Hosuh had, if you haven't already, that is," Daniel lets his tears fall and Stephen starts crying the second Daniel starts trying to rub his tears away for good. "Daniel, I know I'm strong enough to not end up like that, I'll be okay," Stephen desperately tries not to stutter but his voice shakes plenty. Instead of replying Daniel scoots over and hugs Stephen tight, and Stephen hugs back, holding tight for a second before relaxing his arms.

Their crying slows down after what feels like forever and Daniel loosens his hold more, but doesn't scoot away. A dumb question pops in Stephen's mind so he throws it out into the open air, "Daniel, do you love anyone?" It's silent for a second before Daniel laughs quietly, "Sorry, that sounded like another highschooler girl thing," Stephen wheezes out his nose and mumbles coherently enough, "Don't do the voice..." Daniel immediately slips into the valley girl voice "Oh my god, like, let's talk about our crushes," Stephen pushes Dan out of the hug, and they laugh for a second before Dan follows up with "Yeah, I do, but it's a really different case from yours," Stephen hums in question as the smile has yet to fade on his face, "The thing is...I don't think he likes me the way _I_ like him, so I'm trying to get over him," Stephen frowns almost instantly, "You never give up easy on anything, what's up with you?" Daniel waves his hands dismissively yet again, "This isn't about me, we're talking about you,"

Stephen sighs, "What else would we need to talk about?" "Well..." Daniel looks off for a second, "You still need to figure out how to apologize to Hosuh, _and_ you have to tell him how you feel! That's where my ideas come in," Stephen groans at the mere implication that Dan wants to help him set up a perfect apology and confession. Today already feels like a long one.

  
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When Daniel had picked Jay and Hosuh up from university much later, Hosuh was happy to hear that Dan and Stephen had talked, but he wasn't told anymore details than that. Hosuh was fine with that, and the second he finished eating dinner he ran away upstairs to start homework that he _really_ should've done yesterday but... Y'know. Let's just say it slipped his mind.

Hosuh was halfway through writing a paper when he started spacing out. He started thinking about Stephen, and he missed seeing his smiles directed at him. Stephen is still being distant. Hosuh supposes that he understands, he can't get himself back on track in one day, but it hurts anyway. Hosuh knows Stephen didn't mean the things he said, but it still hurt. Hosuh wants to believe that Stephen will come to him when he's ready, though. It'll hurt to wait, but it'll be okay. Hosuh refocuses and checks the time, it's a little past 8:30PM and he should really be working. So he tries his best to get it done.

He keeps getting distracted, checking his phone to see if anyone texted him when his phone hasn't gone off, going to his playlist to pick a specific song to play, reorganizing his stuffed animal friends— Wait. Hosuh glances over to his bed having forgot Torchy was still there. He pulls his earbuds out and moves over to Torchy and slowly picks him up as if the plushie will burn him. He turns to sit himself down on the bed, staring into the beady eyes of the warmly colored chicken. Hosuh starts feeling overwhelmed and has a want to cry, and he doesn't know why at first, and he holds Torchy close as he thinks out his emotions. It must be because he got Torchy for Stephen, right? Torchy is special to Stephen, like how Hallo is special to Hosuh. They won each other these cuddly friends. The best thing Hosuh could do right now was give him back. So with his paper temporarily abandoned, he left his room quietly and went to the door to Stephen's room.

Should he knock? Should he leave Torchy here? Should he write a note explaining why he's giving Torchy back? He should write a note, shouldn't he? Hosuh awkwardly retreats back to his room to whip out a piece of paper and a pen, and begins to write a quick note. He monotonely mumbles it out loud to himself to make sure it's good enough, "Here's Torchy since he was a gift I won for you and because you don't have any plushies and I have a ton of them, you should have him," Hosuh wonders if it's too simple and adds a couple of exclamation marks and signs it and decides it's as good as it's gonna get right now. He folds the paper once and leaves his room to set the paper down and then Torchy on top of the paper. He decides not to knock, but he lingers at the door for a couple seconds. A couple seconds too long, he finds out.

The floorboards at the stairs creak and it catches Hosuh off=guard as his gaze glances towards the stairs to see Stephen, "Hos?" That nickname stabs Hosuh through the chest as he quickly looks back down and backs away towards where his room was. When he thinks about it more, Hosuh really should've known that Stephen wouldn't have been in his room yet. He can't just say nothing, Stephen will get the wrong idea... "Um, a present! Okay bye," Hosuh slides back into his room and closes the door behind him and rests against it for a couple seconds to process that he really came up with the dumbest escape. Hosuh doesn't want to initiate any conversation yet, he wants to wait on Stephen to be ready. Maybe Hosuh is tiptoeing too much, but it's probably because he's scared that things will get worse from here and that he _needs_ to be distant like Stephen, for the sake of Stephen. Hosuh listens as Stephen's bedroom door quietly shuts and finally lets himself walk back to his desk, not wanting to work anymore, but gets back on track anyway.

Well, he tries to, despite stopping to check Discord and such more than thrice, and then gets stuck on writing a conclusion and finding himself rereading his entire paper to summarize it and fixing little things instead of just finishing it already and as a conclusion to this line of thought, Hosuh can't focus because of subconscious thoughts. He's _still_ thinking about Stephen, mostly in little brief moments while he was typing. Hosuh takes his hands away from the computer to do hand stretches because his fingers started aching to be cracked after all that typing. Glancing over to all his plush friends, emotions overwhelm him again and before he knows it, he's on autopilot. He heads out his room, downstairs, and down the hall to knock lightly and rapidly with both his hands on the door to Jay's room, "Jay? May I enter the den?" Less than a second later Jay's voice is heard from inside, "Of course, enter my humble abode," and Hosuh lets himself in.

Jay was sitting at his desk typing to friends on Discord like Hosuh had seen him doing when he was getting distracted while typing his paper. Hosuh closes the door out of common courtesy and walks on over to watch Jay's computer screen from the back of his chair, resting his elbows on it. "What brings you to my mad scientist lair, Hoho?" Jay says without looking away from the screen where a couple of their friends were arguing over who was secretly a furry in the server or something like that. Hosuh took a second because he didn't really convert any of his thoughts to words before this, "I keep thinking about Stephen, and getting reminiscent of when he would actually talk to me..." Jay hums in understanding and reaches a hand over his head to pat Hosuh's hair, missing the target before the hand actually touched his hair, "Want to take this to the bed?" Hosuh wheezes lightly at the wording and Jay notices too, "I should've thought that one through, what I meant to say was 'Would you like to have this conversation sitting on the bed with some pillows because it's comfy?'" Jay laughs at himself and Hosuh snaps out of his quiet fit of wheezing, "Yeah, sure,"

Hosuh plops on Jay's bed and instead of getting in the bed normally like a normal person, he goes to the part where the bed meets the wall and pulls the covers up from where they were tucked in neatly, and goes under the covers from there. Hosuh watches as Jay gets up from his desk chair and goes over to his closet in the wall and slides open the door to grab two fluffy pillows out from the bottom, throwing them towards the bed and missing both times. Hosuh does scoot over to pick up the one closest though, and holds it to his chest. When Jay turns around to see the odd way Hosuh was in the bed, he only shook his head and picked up the pillow that missed the bed and brought it with him as he chose to hug the pillow loosely, "Just start talking about it when you're ready,"

Hosuh gathers words in his head quickly, not wanting to make Jay wait for him to talk for too long, "I think one thing that's sticking with me is that Stephen avoided telling me that he loved me. We both know we love each other! At least I _think_ he knows I love him. I hope he does," Hosuh huffs and readjusts the pillow in his arms, "Maybe I just don't get it because love comes easy to me, there's always the awkward crush stage, but if you both know you love each other that's the part where you should obviously start dating! But Stephen doesn't do that! Stephen doesn't date at all! And I— Yeah, hold on, I thought he was straight! He's said so! Did he have a realization?" Hosuh stares at Jay for an answer now that he's obviously confused at all the questions that bombarded his brain.

"Hosuh, people have had realizations like this even later than adulthood, I'm so used to being in a very accepting community that the fact that Stephen has said he was straight didn't pop into my mind until now," Jay pauses to laugh since he now remembers that Stephen most definitely has said that he's straight, "I think it's fair to say that he's not straight anymore, but moving on, love is different for everyone. For you it's more simple, but to Stephen it might be seen as intimidating, or a future hassle, or maybe it's a bigger deal to him than it is to you, there could be a lot of reasons. But I personally think... That he's just scared. And awkward. You've noticed how he's changed too, clearly?" Hosuh nods and Jay continues, "Obviously he became so invested in what he feels toward you, or just you overall, that it changed him mentally _very_ suddenly. It happens to the best of us," Jay ends that with a bit of a sour tone in his voice, concerning Hosuh slightly, "Do you know what's that like? The sudden changing?"

"Oh Hoho," Jay reaches over to pat Hosuh on the head, "I know all too well. And I'd hate to know again, it's the worst. It fucks you up completely all because you love someone too much. Now I'm edgy," Jay laughs lightly but Hosuh can't be sure if it's a genuine laugh or a self-deprecating laugh. Hosuh chooses not to pry more into Jay's problems, "So you think what happened to you is happening to Stephen? Is there like... Can that be fixed? Should it be fixed?" Hosuh isn't sure how he wants to describe what he means but Jay's already talking, "I don't think it'll be fixed for a while, as long as he's deeply in love with you he's not changing for a while. Maybe the awkwardness will change if you start dating," Hosuh makes a mental note that Stephen won't be awkward forever and mumbles as he squeezes his pillow a little, "I mean, I guess it's sweet if he likes me that much..." Jay laughs in the back of his throat, "Do you need anymore knowledge from me?"

Hosuh thinks for a second and shakes his head, "No, but I think my thoughts will be quieter when I'm trying to work," Pulling his legs out of the covers, Hosuh puts the pillow aside and gives Jay a quick hug, "I might come back for a sleepover, I can bring my plushies," Jay claps excitedly when Hosuh moves away from the hug, "Our plushies can meet!! I think my Pikachu and Seoltang will make _great_ pals," "You make the tea for the tea party, I bring the friends," "Deal!" They shake on it and Hosuh heads for the door, "I'll text you when to start making tea!" Jay gives a thumbs up and Hosuh leaves the Jaymer cave. He goes upstairs, determined to finish the paper quickly so that the tea party can happen sooner.

Hosuh isn't worried anymore, he knows Stephen's feelings have stayed the same.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> procrastination be hitting hard HERE'S A FUN CHAP WITH LIFE LESSONS WHERE STEPHEN AND DANIEL CRY AND HUG BECAUSE THAT'S IMPORTANT  
AND YEAH NAME CHANGE it just feels awkward to keep stanplandanplan as my main name so i just shook it up a little


	20. Day 67

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OH MY GOD IM SORRY ABOUT MY EXTREME DEMOTIVATION HERE'S A SHORT CHAPTER YES THERE WILL BE MORE CHAPS think of this as like an interlude or something

It was about a week since Hosuh had spoke to Jay and he was doing pretty okay! He'd been making an effort to talk to Stephen 'normally' and he recalls how Stephen was very caught off-guard by the sudden conversations. Hosuh knew it'd take a while for Stephen to open back up to him after everything that happened, but it happened smoother than he expected. He thought maybe at first Stephen would snap at him and accuse him of trying to pry _the_ conversation out of him and Hosuh supposes that'd be somewhat true, but he mostly just misses talking to Stephen like a normal person. The small topics of "We should probably go to the grocery store soon," went to more engaging topics like "I think vacuuming up jello through a metal tube would be a pretty cool sound," which spurred a whole debate that ended in laughter. Hosuh couldn't be happier about this fact.

Even so, Thanksgiving nears and everyone except Hosuh would be going to see their families. Hosuh had celebrated Chuseok with his family in Korea back in September. When Hosuh was alone at home for the first time and longest time in a while, he realized that if he hadn't made those attempts to talk to Stephen, it would've ate at him inside and out. Of course the one thought he'd been having during that time was when they'd talk about everything, and it made him feel sick from the anxiety sometimes, but he's determined to wait until Stephen's ready. Even so, Hosuh made sure nothing collected dust in the house and had enough self-control not to snoop around while he was at it. It was lonely, and he didn't like the silence at first. When he was starting to get used to it everyone was already coming back from their Thanksgiving trips, and he remembers hugging all of them individually in a tight hold while whining about how much he missed them, and that he was bored.

Now, on November 29th, Hosuh was sitting on the couch with his friends and playing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and he couldn't be happier. Hosuh is confidently an introvert but he loves spending time with his friends more than anything. He had begun to miss when they would go on adventures throughout October, but now that snow has really started coming down, there's nothing much they can do outside of the house. So video games were the next best bet.

Whatever the coming months bring, Hosuh's know he'll be okay.

  
———————————————

  
Stephen was definitely scared at first when Hosuh started talking to him directly a while after the talk he had with Daniel. He knows Hosuh hadn't forgotten anything, yet he was speaking to him like nothing happened at all. Even so, Stephen missed talking to him, and he missed the warm feeling in his chest when he did. So as he slowly eased back into talking to him, his heart felt less knotted and sometimes he forgets completely that they even kissed, argued, that their relationship could clearly become something more. In those moments where he forgets, he's truly living in the moment. Stephen loves the way Hosuh makes him feel, hooked on it maybe, even though his feelings are also his worst enemy. He's trying to accept that he has nothing to be afraid of as days go by.

And as days go by, he has to go visit his family for Thanksgiving for at the very least of three days. He felt homesick despite being home. His brother cheered him up though and would listen every time he would talk about Hosuh, not without some teasing though, which Stephen has gotten used to hearing by now from, he thinks, everyone. When he finally could go home, everything felt back to normal. Or at least, what normal had become. He's happy being back with his closest friends, where he's now playing video games with them.

It'd been a while since he'd stayed up so late, it's 1AM now and Jay and Daniel decided to dip and go to bed, so Stephen was playing Minecraft with Hosuh and giggling like an idiot when he gets caught sabotaging whatever Hosuh is working on. Despite his messing around, Stephen had a question in his head that he couldn't push away. He tries not to think too hard when he says it, "Hosuh, so, you like me, right?" Hosuh looks at him for a second, confused a little so Stephen gets embarrassed about the question he's trying to lead up to, "Well sure you're bound to, Stephen is the greatest, but I mean like... _Love_ me," Realization dawns on Hosuh's face so he quickly assures Stephen, "Yeah," His tone is cheerful when he says that, but if anything Stephen feels more flustered from the confirmation, "Okay, so... When did you realize that?"

Hosuh thinks about it for a second before putting his hands together and looking away, probably feeling a little embarrassed himself, "Well... I realized I loved you in maybe... July? But I didn't do anything about it, I just had it processed in my brain, but I'm sure I've loved you for a lot longer than that," Stephen let that settle in his brain, feeling a little inferior with how much longer Hosuh has had feelings for him. "How about you then? If you want to talk about it at least," Hosuh looks at him in wait of an answer, Stephen decides he might as well admit defeat with his shorter crush time, "So you know the picnic we had near the end of September? Then," Hosuh looks surprised for a moment, "Oh, I should've guessed that, you've been weird ever since October came around," Stephen laughs quietly, unsure of where to take the conversation, he goes back to focusing on Minecraft.

Hosuh scoots right up to Stephen's side and goes back to focusing on the game too, but Stephen knows Hosuh wants to talk more about it. Stephen still feels that he needs more closure as well, "We can talk about stuff more, you can bring up any stupid thing I've done the past two months right now," It takes maybe ten seconds but Hosuh says "We made out under someone's porch on Halloween," with bewilderment in his voice, Stephen was gonna but in, but Hosuh kept going, "We have won each other plush friends, we have cuddled and held hands but we already did that sometimes, we have made cookies together and assaulted each other with flour, you've pierced your ear, made a Halloween costume inspired by Seoltang, pinned me to the wall and floor in laser tag, and all I had to do was style my hair. I'll even braid my hair right now," Stephen laughs as Hosuh shakes his hair out and starts braiding his hair, "No, no, allow _me_, you can build your Minecraft house," Hosuh giggles a little and readjusts so Stephen can braid his hair.

Stephen is gleeful to have Hosuh's hair in his hands again for a lot longer than previous times and actually being sober while doing so. "Stephen, I'm gonna say it," Stephen directs his attention back to the voice, "Do you have a weird kink for hair or something? Just wondering," Stephen laughs a squeaky laugh, the fact that he could wake Daniel or Jay doesn't even pass his mind, "I don't think so?! What?!" Stephen messes up the braid and undoes it all, trying to stop laughing before he tries again, "It was just a question, was I the first to ask?" "Yeah! Yeah you were," Hosuh laughs out loud now, but quickly relaxes so Stephen braids Hosuh's silver hair right this time. "There. ...Why did you want your hair braided again?" Hosuh shrugs and shakes his head, "I don't know, but it's braided now," Hosuh scoots back and cozies back up against Stephen's side, and Stephen's happy that they can do this with the both of them knowing the feelings behind it.

He doesn't know if he's ready for anything committal, but right now, Stephen feels safe and sound right where they are.

"Wait, we should do something fun tomorrow, I've been wanting to do something exciting again," Hosuh hums after speaking, thinking of something, and Stephen's brain tries to come up with a fun activity too. Then an idea hits him, "I could try teaching you a dance," Hosuh gasps lightly, "I don't know if I can do that though..." Stephen cuts off Hosuh's doubt, "No it's fine, I haven't danced in like ten years, it'd be a learning experience for us both," Hosuh laughs and nods, before realizing, "Oh you know what, we should've gotten pumpkins to carve for Halloween! We can make up for it when we decorate the house with Christmas stuff," "Hell yeah!" Stephen holds his hand up and high fives Hosuh, but Hosuh just starts holding his hand when their hands meet, making Stephen laugh lightly, "We have plenty of time to figure fun activities out, but..." Stephen picks up his phone and turns it on, "It's about to be two in the morning," "Oh, shit," Hosuh laughs after the initial shock.

Hosuh leans on Stephen's shoulder despite the time, and as much as Stephen would like to cuddle with Hosuh right here and now, there are things just as important. "Hosuh, we gotta get up. It's time for bed and I need to turn the TV off," Hosuh hums and squeezes Stephen's hand, not yet to let him go yet, "I'll let you get up _if_ you come visit my stuffed animal kids," A proposition that Stephen would take without hesitation since it's Hosuh asking, but Stephen confronts what Hosuh's request really is, "You're just trying to make me cuddle you," "But am I convincing you?" Hosuh says without even a second to think, and Stephen rolls his eyes before scoffing, "Yeah," and with that Hosuh takes his weight off Stephen, only letting go of his hand once Stephen was going out of reach, laughing quietly about it after.

Stephen realized his feelings were originally just rose buds, now they're fully bloomed. Maybe they'll be intertwined with a certain someone's roses, that is, once he's ready.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BIG SIGH i am alive and i live. i went like RADIO SILENT on all social media other than my wattpad feed so im sorry if i scared any of you that follow me on either instagram or twitter, im taking an indefinite but most likely permanent leave from social media other than wattpad and ao3! it's a long story!  
there'll be like four or five chapters left until this story ends!!! maybe almost ten if i realize i can expand the ideas i have into long chapters! saying this now so no one is concerned when i go dead silent for another month and a half!  
don't worry, knowing me i'll probably make stephen and hosuh talk a lot more about their relationship during the chaps hee hee in fact, if there's anything specific you guys would want them to talk about... feel free to leave a comment about it maybe i'll figure out how to implement it


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